Are Richmond actually “back” as an AFL premiership menace? Damien Hardwick nonetheless must be satisfied.
But consecutive wins for the primary time this season have given the Tigers’ triple-premiership coach purpose to imagine the wheels are lastly in movement after a sluggish begin.
The idea will probably be put to the take a look at within the sold-out “Dreamtime at the ‘G” blockbuster in opposition to Essendon on Saturday evening.
“We’d like a bit more evidence – it’s a small sample size,” Hardwick mentioned.
“Defensively and contest-wise we’ve been pretty solid throughout the start of the year … but offensively is probably where we’ve laboured a little bit.
“The final couple of weeks we have scored 100 factors or thereabouts, so we’re moderately happy with the way it’s going.”
Richmond have lost Jacob Hopper (calf) for at least a month but regain co-captain Toby Nankervis for a ruck battle with imposing Essendon duo Sam Draper and Andrew Phillips.
The Bombers are still without Darcy Parish (calf) and have now lost fellow midfielder Will Setterfield to a fractured foot.
Nankervis will play slightly reduced minutes alongside young tall Samson Ryan, with the pair crucial in Hardwick’s planning to control the centre bounce game.
“It’s good to have a combative-natured individual in there that performs that ruck position 80 per cent of the time,” Hardwick mentioned of Nankervis.
“We’re happy to have his management and expertise round that centre bounce as a result of it is in all probability been an space the place we’ve not been overly robust within the final couple of weeks.
“We’re looking for a spike in that part of the game and Essendon score heavily from that source as well … so we’ve got to make sure we control that as best we can.”
The Tigers haven’t misplaced to Essendon since 2014, profitable the final 13 conferences between the 2 sides.
But that is their first encounter since Brad Scott took over as coach of the Bombers, who he led to a 4-1 begin earlier than dropping their final 4 video games.
“New coach, new system. It is challenging and we sort of don’t look at those (historical records) along the way,” Hardwick mentioned.
“We do look at what Brad’s been able to do in a short period of time with Essendon and change the DNA, so to speak, of what they are now.
“They’ve obtained some challenges that they’re going to current us with and hopefully we will overcome them, however there’s some issues that we really feel we will exploit them with additionally.”
Hardwick lauded the influence of premiership-winning pair Shai Bolton and Nick Vlastuin, who will reach 100 and 200 games respectively for Richmond on Saturday night.
“Both have simply been unbelievable for our footy membership,” Hardwick mentioned.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
