-
IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
Terry had a chat on Sport927 yesterday morning.
Here’s a link for those who’d like to listen and below is a possibly not 100% accurate transcript for those without speakers.
Here’s a link for those who’d like to listen and below is a possibly not 100% accurate transcript for those without speakers.
- There’s been no media ban. As a group we finished 16th last year and this time of year we think every side in the competition is saying how quick they’ve become or how much weight they’ve put on and we just said we didn’t want to get involved in that, particularly having the finish we had last year. We said we’d do things we’re asked to but we won’t necessarily jump on the front foot. We’ll wait until the season proper starts and we’ve actually got something to talk about.
- We changed our pre-season a bit. Looked at last season and where we needed to improve a few things over the summer months. Obviously they weren’t on display in our NAB1 game. It was disappointing when it was a Friday night game that gets a lot of profile and we put on a really poor performance on that particular night. The last couple of weeks have been a lot better. We won in Cairns but they hada lot of young boys in so hard to get a gauge on that one, but we went to Narrandera and played Sydney. They had a fairly full side in, a full complement of players like Kirk, Goodes, Hall, O’Loughlin running around and we were pleased with what we showed.
- Asked about specific areas we worked on pre-season. The game 10 years ago was kicking to 50/50s creating lots of contests. Now it’s gone European soccer style, maintain and create possession of the footy, keep possession rate to a premium. That’s an area our skill level wasn’t up to standard on and hasn’t been over a period of time. Back when Terry was sitting in the media he said that’s the area the Tigers need to improve on the most and certainly that’s what we’ve done the last 6 months.
- Buster SMSd asking where Terry sees Richmond’s improvement coming from. Realistically there are 3 areas we can improve on what we’ve don, and we need to improve dramatically in those areas, no doubt about that.
- 1-Healthy List-This time last year Newman had a rod in his leg, Brown still wasn’t right, Simmonds wasn’t ready for start of year and pretty much missed whole year with injury. Cogs didn’t play at all, lost Polo early in season with shoulder. All of team are back fit and well. With the exception of Cotchin, and Schulz now 50/50 for the first game, we’ve got every player available and that always makes a big difference.
- 2-Maturity- He’s always said we have a lot of good players coming through. People have questioned that but our young players were just kids. They’re getting tot hat age of 22, and 22-26 is what impacts games. A lot of players, Moore, Schulz, Raines, Jackson, Pattison, Deledio, Tambling all in that 21-22 age group and (can’t read my writing) something about approaching maturity.
- 3-Depth- Now young men rather than boys and bringing in Morton and McMahon as ready mades gives us more depth. We’ve had to play young boys in the past who probably weren’t ready to play senior footy but we didn’t have any alternative.
- Glad to be playing reigning premiers on their home ground. We had Saints in the NAB who were obviously up and running and are playing in the final. Sydney are a good team. Geelong at Geelong should have us up and running for the season.
- We’ve copped our fair share of whacks the last 3 weeks or so which Terry thinks is quite strange because they are practise matches after all. We’re happy to be judged on what we put on display in round 1. All our guys are hoping Judd plays only for the spectacle of the whole thing. You know it will put 15-20,000 more people through the gate. Last year we were fortunate enough to play in Hird/Sheed’s last game. There were 90,000 people there and all professional players want to play in that kind of environment.