Tigers must deliver: Frawley
Paul Gough
afl.com.au
1:54:05 PM Thu 17 July, 2003
Richmond coach Danny Frawley says his side – without a win since May – will have to produce its best performance of the season on Friday night if it is to end its long losing streak by beating in-form Collingwood.
The Tigers have slumped from third to 11th on the ladder since their last victory – way back in round eight against Melbourne - and now find themselves up against a side peaking at the right time following three straight wins.
And the Tigers will go into Friday’s game at the MCG and indeed every game for the remainder of this season without their captain Wayne Campbell and vice-captain Darren Gaspar, who are out for the rest of the year with achilles and knee injuries respectively.
It sounds like mission impossible and even Frawley agreed before training on Thursday that the Tigers faced a difficult task this week – even more so considering the club is coming off its third loss by less than a kick in the past five rounds.
“We are in a position we didn’t want to be in after a terrific start to the season and it’s going to be a challenge to how we react to even last week’s performance,” he said of the last minute defeat to Geelong.
“We are pretty dirty on ourselves to be in this position but morale is positive.”
Frawley said the ‘common denominator’ in each of the Tigers recent close losses to the Kangaroos, Carlton and Geelong was the absence of both Campbell and Gaspar due to injury in the dying stages - which has robbed the team of its ability to steady under pressure.
And he admits the absence of Gaspar, who did his knee in the dying minutes of the round 11 loss against the Kangaroos, will be felt even more this week.
That is because he would have been the man to stand Collingwood’s in-form spearhead Chris Tarrant.
"Darren Gaspar probably has the best record in the competition on Tarrant if you look at the last five times he has played on him – he is irreplaceable," Frawley said before nominating Ty Zantuck, Andrew Kellaway and even much-maligned midfielder Joel Bowden as possible opponents for Tarrant.
Frawley said the Tigers’ second group of leaders, players such as Brad Ottens, Ben Holland and Justin Blumfield had not been able to fill the void left by Campbell and Gaspar because of their own injury problems.
But for all the difficulties the Tigers are enduring in 2003, Frawley has not written-off the season just yet although he was also quick to acknowledge the enormity of the task confronting his team against the Magpies.
“We still think we’ve just got to win a game of football and keep ourselves in the (finals) hunt, that’s all we’ve talked about,” he said.
“(But) Collingwood play a good brand of team orientated football and they have got a hell of a lot of confidence.’
“They (Collingwood) are a terrific side, well-coached and well-disciplined and we will have to play some of our best football of the year to win.”
Paul Gough
afl.com.au
1:54:05 PM Thu 17 July, 2003
Richmond coach Danny Frawley says his side – without a win since May – will have to produce its best performance of the season on Friday night if it is to end its long losing streak by beating in-form Collingwood.
The Tigers have slumped from third to 11th on the ladder since their last victory – way back in round eight against Melbourne - and now find themselves up against a side peaking at the right time following three straight wins.
And the Tigers will go into Friday’s game at the MCG and indeed every game for the remainder of this season without their captain Wayne Campbell and vice-captain Darren Gaspar, who are out for the rest of the year with achilles and knee injuries respectively.
It sounds like mission impossible and even Frawley agreed before training on Thursday that the Tigers faced a difficult task this week – even more so considering the club is coming off its third loss by less than a kick in the past five rounds.
“We are in a position we didn’t want to be in after a terrific start to the season and it’s going to be a challenge to how we react to even last week’s performance,” he said of the last minute defeat to Geelong.
“We are pretty dirty on ourselves to be in this position but morale is positive.”
Frawley said the ‘common denominator’ in each of the Tigers recent close losses to the Kangaroos, Carlton and Geelong was the absence of both Campbell and Gaspar due to injury in the dying stages - which has robbed the team of its ability to steady under pressure.
And he admits the absence of Gaspar, who did his knee in the dying minutes of the round 11 loss against the Kangaroos, will be felt even more this week.
That is because he would have been the man to stand Collingwood’s in-form spearhead Chris Tarrant.
"Darren Gaspar probably has the best record in the competition on Tarrant if you look at the last five times he has played on him – he is irreplaceable," Frawley said before nominating Ty Zantuck, Andrew Kellaway and even much-maligned midfielder Joel Bowden as possible opponents for Tarrant.
Frawley said the Tigers’ second group of leaders, players such as Brad Ottens, Ben Holland and Justin Blumfield had not been able to fill the void left by Campbell and Gaspar because of their own injury problems.
But for all the difficulties the Tigers are enduring in 2003, Frawley has not written-off the season just yet although he was also quick to acknowledge the enormity of the task confronting his team against the Magpies.
“We still think we’ve just got to win a game of football and keep ourselves in the (finals) hunt, that’s all we’ve talked about,” he said.
“(But) Collingwood play a good brand of team orientated football and they have got a hell of a lot of confidence.’
“They (Collingwood) are a terrific side, well-coached and well-disciplined and we will have to play some of our best football of the year to win.”
and many of our players are not disciplined.
