THE DANGER this week is that we have everything to gain from Friday night – but Richmond has nothing togain and nothing to lose.
No doubt the Tigers will try to play some spirited footy andtake risks, and that's what we've got to be guarded against. We'll have to beon our toes.
They got the jump on us last time we played them, and a goodstart will be a focus for us. They can do that, Richmond, and they stay with sides for a longperiod of time, so if you're not on your game it’s easy to let a match slip.
You look at the end result last week and you see the Tigerswere beaten by a fair margin, but the score flattered Geelong. There were some good signs for Richmond. It wasn't untillate that the game opened up, and Richmondwas really competitive and played some good footy.
We're going to have to be at our best. We want to startplaying some pretty good footy like we did in the first part of the year.
We were happy to get the four points last week against Carlton. That was great,but we're still not playing our best footy at the moment.
It was particularly important to get the win after the lossto Brisbane theweek before. We were beaten pretty convincingly by Brisbane, so it was good to get back on thewinners' board. We certainly needed to.
We were disappointed with our first half against the Blues.We really had to dig deep to win the game in the end.
Getting the ball quickly to Anthony Rocca and Travis Clokewas a massive part of the game, and we weren't able to do it in the first half.After half time we seemed to get a bit more run going and got the ball a bitmore long and direct to our big forwards, and it paid dividends.
As to those suggestions of tanking, you think, “Hang on aminute, we really had to earn the game.” But I think afterwards it disappears alittle bit because we got the four points.
You don't concern yourself too much about it.
I doubt any side could possibly go out and tank a game. It'sjust too hard. I can understand how you could go out there with kids or someuntried players in your team, but once you're out on the ground I would imagineit would be pretty hard to tank a game.
Once the game has started, you just can't help yourself. Playersare very competitive people – that's why they're playing the elite game – andto suggest they're going to play at half-pace is ludicrous.
You can't temper a player's will to get a kick and try towin the game; that's impossible.
All of this discussion about tanking no doubt has a lot todo with the current drafting rules, as the system currently doesn't give you anincentive to win the game – that's the important thing.
The clubs in that situation at the moment might have theincentive to get priority picks, so I guess that's why the AFL has to look atit.
Shane O'Bree will have a fitness test on Thursday but I'mpretty sure he'll come up. It's a positive that Scott Pendlebury is close toreturning, because we initially thought he'd be out for six to eight weeks. Buthe will have a fitness test on Thursday too, to see where he is at.
Brodie Holland is going okay. He trained on Tuesday prettywell, so that's a good sign for us and it's a good start. It was pretty muchthe first main training session he's done since he got injured, so we'll seehow he pulls up and approaches the next training session. It's all positive sofar.
