Richmond coach Damien Hardwick insists that Saturday night’s match against Essendon at the MCG is the sole football focus for the Tigers right now.
Although a third consecutive finals campaign looms for Richmond, with just two home-and-away rounds remaining, Hardwick refuses to look any further ahead than the Bombers’ clash.
“As a coach, all we do is prepare our players for this week’s challenge . . . The fact of the matter is our greatest challenge is this week versus the Bombers,” Hardwick said.
“Once we do that, then we’ll move on to North Melbourne (in Round 23).
“Every game’s just a game up until then. We’ve just got to make sure we continue to play some good football, get consistency in performance, and we’ll worry about what happens down the track.
“We can only play who’s in front of us at the moment, and that’s Essendon.
“So, we’ll just go about our business as per normal, prepare and plan as we do, and make sure our players are prepared as well as they can be.
“It’s going to be a good challenge . . . Saturday night footy at the ‘G’.”
Essendon performed admirably under caretaker coach Matthew Egan, in his first game as a replacement for James Hird, going down by just two points to Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium last Saturday.
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“They’re playing a different style of footy a little bit under Matthew,” Hardwick said.
“The one thing we like as a coach is predictability, and it’s very hard when you bring in a new coach because their style of play will change somewhat. So, it’s going to be a challenge for us.
“I think they’ve always had a high play-on rate, but it was noticeable they were attacking the corridor and probably a little bit more direct than they had been previously.
“They’ve got some key forwards . . . (Cale) Hooker going up forward’s been a real bonus for them. I think it’s made (Joe) Daniher a better player because of his presence down there . . .
“So they’ve swung a few things around, and they’ve got some very good players.
“Any side that’s got that talent is capable of beating anyone if they don’t come thoroughly prepared.”
