It’s been only seven weeks since Richmond stunned the then unbeaten Fremantle at Domain Stadium with a sizzling eight-goal opening quarter burst that set up a highly-meritorious 27-point win, but the Tigers’ coach Damien Hardwick is under no illusions about the size of the task his team will face in the return bout against the Dockers at the MCG on Saturday.
Richmond has subsequently moved into fifth place on the league ladder, on the back of four consecutive wins, while Fremantle sits top of the table, with just one further loss (against reigning premier Hawthorn in Launceston).
“This week’s an enormous challenge. We’ve got a great opposition that is well coached, well drilled, and they execute incredibly well . . . They’re the best team in the ‘comp’ their record would say,” Hardwick said.
“It’s going to be a really good contest . . . We know it’s going to be a grind, it’s going to be a tough game, it’s going to be highly-contested, time in possession’s going to be crucial for both sides, and whoever comes out on top will generally come out on top in that ‘stat’ also . . .
“There are some things that we did well when we played them last time, there are some things we can also improve. So, we’ll take bits and pieces of both.”
Hardwick admitted he would like to see the Tigers boost their scoring power, although there were valid reasons why they have been a bit down in this area throughout the season.
They rank 11th in the competition for points scored, but have had the fifth least total points scored against them so far in 2015.
“We probably haven’t had our forward structure intact for the whole year,” he said.
“Shane Edwards (hairline fracture of the leg) is obviously out now, Ty (Vickery, suspended) and Ben (Griffiths, shoulder injury) as well.
“We probably haven’t had the consistency of personnel up there that we’d like . . .
“With Brett (Deledio) being out early (in the season), we couldn’t afford to rest Dustin (Martin) down there as much.
“We’re starting to get some consistency in that area, but it’d be nice to get the full contingent of players back there because we’d still like to kick two more goals a game . . . we feel we’re not scoring enough.
“We’re not getting the ball in there probably as much as we’d like at various stages also, but defensively we’re pretty happy with where we’re at.”
