Corey Enright may be well and truly in the twilight of his illustrious playing career with Geelong, but the champion defender has figured prominently in Richmond’s planning for Sunday’s match against the Cats at the MCG.
The 34-year-old (he turns 35 next month), who recently broke Geelong’ all-time games’ record, is averaging 29 disposals per game over the past month.
So dominant was he in the first half of last Sunday’s clash with Essendon (25 disposals to the main break), the Bombers were forced to apply a tight tag to him throughout the second half.
“He’s playing some good footy at the moment . . . Off half-back, he reads the game really well,” Richmond assistant coach Brendon Lade said on this week’s edition of Roar Vision’s ‘Opposition Analysis’.
“He might have lost a couple of yards in speed, but he makes up for it in ’smarts’, that’s for sure . . .
“He starts a lot of their chains down in defence. He just plays the angles so well, and he’s a very hard player to stop, even if you do tag him.”
Richmond also is fully aware of the capabilities of another quality, experienced Geelong defender in Harry Taylor.
“Harry will let you go up the ground at times, if he doesn’t think you’re going to get the ball. And, if your forward doesn’t get it, he’s by himself, behind the ball,” Lade said.
“So, you’ve got to play him a bit smart . . . try and play on him a little bit, and don’t go up the ground until he drops off.
“For us, it’s about keeping him engaged as much as we can.”
And, of course, no opposition analysis of Geelong would be complete, without a reference to the Cats’ dynamic midfield duo of Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood . . .
“They’ve both been great this year,” Lade said.
“Their (Geelong’s) midfield’s very tough, but coming up against (Trent) Cotchin and (Dustin) Martin, (we’re) really looking forward to see how that goes . . .
“A back will take him (Dangerfield) when he goes forward . . . he can hit the scoreboard quickly . . . Hopefully Dusty can go forward and do what he does.”