Richmond’s four-match winning streak has come on the back of impressive, intelligent, tempo football, with the Tigers displaying a capacity to move the ball quickly at times, while carefully maintaining possession on other occasions.
Following the team’s stunning success against Fremantle at Domain Stadium last Friday night, coach Damien Hardwick explained how the change in playing style came about.
“We always had it in our kit bag and we have played like that at various stages throughout the years I’ve been here,” Hardwick said on SEN.
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“Probably what we were doing too much early, especially in a couple of games – the North Melbourne game was an extreme example – was playing too fast . . . We couldn’t slow ourselves down, and tried to be too aggressive with our ball movement.
“In effect, your ball movement, if you’re turning it over, you don’t help yourself defensively.
“So, it’s something that our guys have got better at.
“Our personnel has probably helped that a little bit as well. We’re winning the ball a bit more across the centre-forward area of the ground with Brett Deledio, who’s an incredible player, and we’re just getting better overall with our experience in the right areas . . .”
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Hardwick pointed out that, notwithstanding an ordinary start to the 2015 season, Richmond had been performing at a reasonable level of consistency for quite a while.
“Our form-line over the past 20 games is pretty good . . . So, we’re very confident in what we’re doing,” he said.
“We realise, though, we’ve got a long way to go.
“We’re still well short of where we need to be, but we’ve got some players that we think can improve and help us in that area.
“So, we’re under no illusions of where we’re at, but, more importantly, we know where we want to go, and what we’ve got to do to get there.”
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