Richmond great Matthew Richardson highlights six key points from the Tigers’ Round 4 loss to Collingwood at the MCG last Friday night.
- Sam Lloyd made a top-class debut.
Lloyd showed that there is simply no substitute for true forward nous. Regardless of the fact that it was his first game at the elite level – and it happened to be on the big Friday night stage at the MCG against Collingwood – he displayed excellent composure and a goal sense that you just can’t teach. The 24-year-old underlined why he has been a proven goalkicker in various competitions over the past few seasons. Not only did he kick three goals, but he worked hard up the ground, to finish with 22 disposals, and he also had five tackles. Lloyd clearly is a quality finisher, and he won’t need many chances during a match to kick goals. Really liked the way he went about it, and he’s definitely a Yellow and Black book special for the coming weeks.
- Dave Astbury continues to be a rock in the Tigers’ defence.
Astbury is reaping the benefits of a strong, uninterrupted pre-season. His performance over the first month of the season proper has been very good, particularly when you take into account the absence of the team’s No. 1 tall defender, Alex Rance, due to injury. Collingwood’s Travis Cloke has been the best contested mark in the competition over the past half-dozen years, yet Astbury was able to beat him in multiple one-on-one contests throughout the match. Importantly, Astbury also was able to stay with the dangerous Cloke on the lead. It was a great all-round defensive effort by the fifth-year tall Tiger, which will further boost his confidence levels for tackling the league’s other gun key forwards.
- Daniel Jackson’s will-to-win is compensating for his lack of a pre-season.
It’s been a remarkable effort by Jackson to slip straight back into the Tigers’ line-up and be such a valuable contributor despite his limited preparation going into season 2014 because of a hamstring problem. Last Friday night, Jackson never stopped trying to lift the Richmond side, despite the dominance of the Magpies. He finished with 27 disposals, which was the second most by a Tiger player for the match, including a game-high 19 contested possessions, a game-high 10 inside-50s, and a game-high nine clearances. That’s a good return from anyone, especially a player coming off an interrupted pre-season.
- Bachar Houli has become more important to the Tigers’ team in Brett Deledio’s absence.
Richmond is really missing Deledio’s run-and-carry at the moment, but Houli did his best on Friday night to generate some valuable quick ball movement out of the side’s back half. Houli had 22 disposals and on several occasions took the game on with some dashing runs. He’s starting to show signs that he’s best form is not far away, which is certainly good news for the Tigers, as they need the ball in his hands as much as possible across the backline.
- Matt Arnot provided some important grunt and run when he came on as the ‘sub’.
The strongly-built 20-year-old was lively when he got his chance at the start of the third quarter after Ty Vickery was subbed out of the game, with Richmond looking to generate a bit more pace. He picked up 10 disposals in the second half, kicked a nice goal, and also had three tackles. It would be good to see Arnot retained in the senior side over the next few weeks, to enhance his overall football development. Such a move also would give the Tigers a better chance to assess his future prospects.
- Richmond faces a must-win game against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Thursday night.
Regardless of how many injuries the Lions have at the moment, or how they’ve been going, the Tigers have to be totally switched on for this encounter to ensure they get the job done and come away with four points, which will be crucial after three losses in the first four rounds. A win would provide the Tiger players with some much-needed confidence, especially with consecutive games to follow against Hawthorn and Geelong.
