Experienced Richmond defender Troy Chaplin has defended claims that the Tigers’ defence employed tunnelling techniques in last Friday night’s final home-and-away round win against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

Speaking on SEN this morning (Tuesday), Chaplin responded to comments made post-game, which suggested Richmond’s backmen were intentionally pushing their opponents under the ball.

“It’s not a technique we go out with . . . tunnelling is extremely dangerous,” he said.

“I had a free kick paid against me in the final quarter and I knew what it was for. But we certainly don’t go out with the intent to tunnel guys.

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“It’s more just using your body to spoil.

“They’re big boys, and once they get their arms at full reach, obviously you’re not going to be able to hit the ball. So you’ve got to try and find a way around it.”

Chaplin said the motion of working a player under the ball is something that has long been part of the game, and it is a technique that’s working well for the Richmond defence.

“It has been around for a while. It’s nothing we haven’t done for the whole year,” he said.

“So, it sort of begs the question, why it has been brought up now.

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“It’s something we will continue to do.

“If we get picked up on it, then, as I said, we’ll get picked up on it, but we aren’t going out there intentionally to tunnel other guys.  That’s not part of us.

“We know the injuries that can be caused by that.

“It’s more or less using your body to try and use it as a spoiling mechanism and it’s been around for a long period of time, so we will continue to do it.”

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