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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
All year I have been of the opinion that RFC needs players who are around 190-195 cm tall to rebuild our goal-to-goal line as the highest priority.
The last couple of games against the Bullies and Dawks has caused me to question this. Both teams play fast, open football based on powerful running and endurance. Multiple tall forwards are unimportant in their structure, making tall defenders redundant. Melb had Bizzell, Rivers and Ferguson all playing for Sandringham on the weekend against the Bulldogs, Wallace played Hyde on the backline against them to try to match up better. Wallace also made a post-match comment on Sunday about our side being too slow. I know this will improve as Campbell, Graham and maybe Staffords retire, but we have looked slow against these sides.
Sydney, the flavour of the month side, have very few tall players at all, a couple of ruckmen, Barry Hall, Lewis-Thompson and that is about it. They have a huge number of medium running players like O'Keeffe, Craig Bolton, Leo Barry, O'Laughlin and Kenneally who pinch hit some of the other tall roles, but are effectively taller running players.
Should we be looking for players like these instead? Thursfield is in this category, as are Bowden and Deledio, Moore and Tuck.
Is the future going to be about pace, pace, pace and nothing else? Should we be looking to draft more 188-192 cm flexible running players instead of traditional key position players?
Just thinking out loud. For the record, I still think taller, stronger key postion players should be our highest priority but the state of the game at the moment has got me thinking.
The last couple of games against the Bullies and Dawks has caused me to question this. Both teams play fast, open football based on powerful running and endurance. Multiple tall forwards are unimportant in their structure, making tall defenders redundant. Melb had Bizzell, Rivers and Ferguson all playing for Sandringham on the weekend against the Bulldogs, Wallace played Hyde on the backline against them to try to match up better. Wallace also made a post-match comment on Sunday about our side being too slow. I know this will improve as Campbell, Graham and maybe Staffords retire, but we have looked slow against these sides.
Sydney, the flavour of the month side, have very few tall players at all, a couple of ruckmen, Barry Hall, Lewis-Thompson and that is about it. They have a huge number of medium running players like O'Keeffe, Craig Bolton, Leo Barry, O'Laughlin and Kenneally who pinch hit some of the other tall roles, but are effectively taller running players.
Should we be looking for players like these instead? Thursfield is in this category, as are Bowden and Deledio, Moore and Tuck.
Is the future going to be about pace, pace, pace and nothing else? Should we be looking to draft more 188-192 cm flexible running players instead of traditional key position players?
Just thinking out loud. For the record, I still think taller, stronger key postion players should be our highest priority but the state of the game at the moment has got me thinking.