Richmond VFL coach Tim Clarke believes Ivan Maric could make his return to the senior side, but admitted injuries to key players hurt the Tigers on the weekend.
Despite a slow start, Clarke was impressed by Maric’s performance against Werribee’s quality ruckmen, suggesting his constant improvement puts him right in the mix for AFL selection.
Maric had 19 disposals, 41 hit-outs, seven clearances, seven inside 50s and booted two goals in the loss.
“Ivvy was fantastic,” Clarke told Roar Vision. “If you watch the last quarter-and-a-half of footy, he really showed that he’s a level above VFL.”
“I think he’s really ready for senior footy and he’s been great for us the last two weeks. I hope that he can give our senior team another lift after last weekend.”
However Maric’s form was somewhat overshadowed by injuries to two key AFL-listed Tigers who have impressed at VFL level this season.
Clarke conceded that injuries to big men Orren Stephenson and Todd Elton were no excuse for the loss but said that it’s always hard to have in-form players go down hurt.
“You can say because we failed to finish off the game that it did affect us but Orren Stephenson is going to miss maybe a week with his hamstring and Todd, we’re going to wait and see what happens with his shoulder,” Clarke said.
“It’s a shame because they’re trying to improve their game, push for senior selection. It’s harder when you’re on the bench.”
Aaron Edwards, Ricky Petterd and the recently elevated Anthony Miles were praised for their standout performances on the weekend but Clarke is already looking ahead to an unpredictable clash against rival Essendon at the ME Bank Centre this Saturday.
“To play the pre-match game before the Dreamtime (at the ‘G) is exciting for us,” he said.
“Stand-alone teams can tend to move up and down depending on what the senior team is doing, so sometimes past form is not great to go off with an AFL-aligned side.”
“We’ll do some work looking at how we can stop them this week.”
