Star Richmond spearhead, Jack Riewoldt, by his own admission, was below his best for a fair portion of the 2012 season.
Yet, the fact he was able to kick more than 50 goals for the third consecutive season, win his third Michael Roach Medal in-a-row, as the Club’s leading goalkicker for the year, and a second Coleman Medal for heading the competition’s goalkicking table, at the end of the home-and-away season, says plenty about his capability as a full-forward at the game’s highest level.
Riewoldt clinched the 2012 Coleman Medal with an impressive six-goal display against Port Adelaide in the final round, which took his season’s tally to 65.
He kicked three goals or more in a match during the season four times, four goals or more three times, five goals or more on two occasions, and six goals or more twice, with a match-winning, season-high eight-goal performance against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium in Round 10.
The 23-year-old, who has now played 112 league games since his debut with Richmond in 2007, was ranked No. 1 at the Club this season for total marks inside-50 (with 83),
No. 1 for total contested marks (39), No. 5 for total marks (114) and No. 2 for goal assists (20).
All in all, that’s a fairly handy set of stats, particularly when you take into account that Riewoldt underwent four operations post-season in 2011, which undoubtedly hampered his preparation leading into the 2012 season.
To further underline Riewoldt’s goalkicking achievement in 2012, consider these facts:
- He became just the second player in Richmond’s league football history to win the competition’s leading goalkicker award (for the home-and-away season) twice, joining Michael Roach.
- He became only the fifth player in Tigerland history to boot 50 goals or more in a season three years on-the-trot.
- He became only the seventh player to win the Tigers’ leading goalkicker award three or more years in succession.
- He moved past former Tigers Billy Wilson and Neil Balme, into 13th place on the Club’s all-time goalkicking list.
Riewoldt, however, certainly didn’t assess his 2012 season as a resounding success.
“I probably rate it, not a failure, but not up to the standards that I’ve set myself to obviously perform for the Club this year,” he said.
Clearly, those standards are fairly high because Riewoldt, as you can see above, had another productive season in front of goals, even though he won’t take the credit for that.
In his Michael Roach Medal acceptance speech, at the Jack Dyer Medal presentation night in early September, Riewoldt praised the productive play of Shane Edwards, Brett Deledio, Robin Nahas, Ivan Maric, Trent Cotchin and Jake King, who combined for a total of 92 goal assists during the 2012 season, and enabled him to again reap the goalkicking rewards.
“This is the hard work that doesn’t get recognised. Of course, it’ll be my name up on the plaque, but there’s so much that I affiliate with winning these awards,” Riewoldt said.
“I do play full-forward for the Richmond Football Club, so I’m going to try and kick as many goals as possible, but all I’m really doing is finishing off the hard work of my team-mates up the field.”
