The Richmond Tigers have started their 2017 off with a pre-season win over the Adelaide Crows, and would be happy to see prominent performances from new faces.
It was the Crows who looked the better of the two sides early, taking advantage of a Richmond defence missing Alex Rance to kick three goals to one in the first term, but from there Richmond gradually took control.
The Tigers simply had more talent in the midfield tonight and it showed as the game dragged on. They finished with +8 clearances, +13 contested possessions, and +10 inside 50s.
New midfielders Josh Caddy and Dion Prestia both played their role – Caddy had 21 touches, three clearances and a goal, while Prestia had 21 touches and five clearances.
Toby Nankervis made a good ruck pairing with Ivan Maric and also managed to collect 15 touches and sneak forward for a goal.
However arguably most exciting for the Richmond faithful would’ve been the speed shown by Jason Castagna, Dan Butler and Daniel Rioli.
Castagna kicked three goals for the night, Butler had 17 touches, a goal and two goal assists. Rioli didn’t find the space to kick as much as he would’ve liked but did offer some exciting flashes and one goal assist.
For the Crows, they chucked a few new faces into the midfield with guys like Rory Sloane, Brad Crouch and Scott Thompson absent, and would’ve been happy with the results.
Rory Laird was the leading disposal-getter on the ground with 33, and showed he can do the tough stuff with 15 contested possessions, three clearances and six tackles.
Harrison Wigg showed plenty with 23 touches, Wayne Milera had 16 but also put up eight tackles. Troy Menzel played forward and bobbed up every now and then, his game would look a lot better if he’d kicked 2.0 instead of 0.2 – and he easily could have.
The Crow who made the best case for a Round 1 berth though was former Giant Curtly Hampton who didn’t play at all last year, largely due to injury.
He had 16 touches kicking two goals and recording two goal assists, playing largely across half-forward – looks like a good replacement for Jarryd Lyons, who moved to Gold Coast in the off-season.
In the end though it was the yellow and black who got to sing the song, and they’ll be hoping this is an omen for a good year to come.
Final score
Richmond Tigers 14.8.92
Adelaide Crows 10.13.73
We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
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