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Barry Levinson
afl.com.au
9:49:54 PM Thu 20 February, 2003
Avoiding a trip to Geraldton on the mid-Western Australian coast is the main motivation that will be driving both Melbourne and Richmond when they meet in the opening match of the Wizard Home Loans Cup on Friday night.
With this year's pre-season competition reverting back from a round-robin to a knock-out series, the loser of Friday night's match is scheduled to play the loser of the West Coast-Fremantle match in a practice match at Geraldton the following week.
Geraldton is about 500 kilometres north of Perth.
The winner, on the other hand, will meet the victor of Saturday's Essendon-Kangaroos clash in Canberra, at Telstra Dome on the same weekend.
"I think we're off to Geraldton in Western Australia if we lose, so we're pretty keen to win," Melbourne midfielder Andrew Leoncelli said.
"We're really keen to win tomorrow night, for our fans as much as ourselves. We also like to play on the better grounds. If you win, you stay in Melbourne playing against good opposition, instead of going (away). It's good to get out to the country, but some of the grounds you play on aren't fantastic, so it's better to play at Telstra Dome. We're really excited about tomorrow night and we really want to win."
Star Tigers forward Matthew Richardson agreed that the longer teams can remain in the Wizard Cup, the better their preparation for the season proper.
"There's no doubt that teams want to stay in the Wizard Cup competition," Richardson said. "As Andrew said, you get to stay on the Telstra ground and you're getting a good workout in that. Guys would prefer to stay in the Wizard Cup, that's for sure, so every team will be out to win it."
Richardson sported a bandage on his left hand at a media conference with Leoncelli at the Red Cross Blood Service.
The players were on hand to show their appreciation to the Red Cross and blood donors for the support they provided to victims of last October's Bali tragedy.
The Tiger injured his wrist at home last weekend, but declared himself a certain starter against the Demons.
"It's fine. I gave it a bit of a sprain on the weekend. I trained today and everything felt good, so I'll be ready to go tomorrow night and looking forward to the game."
Richardson also said that ruckman-forward Brad Ottens will also run out in the yellow and black on Friday night, despite the big man missing training on Thursday morning.
"Brad likes to have 24 hours off before a game, so he trained yesterday with a few of the boys."
And while the Tigers are keen to perform well in the Wizard Cup, repeating their grand final appearance in last year's pre-season competition is not a major priority.
After blitzing Collingwood in the opening round of the regular season, Richmond went on to have a dismal year, finishing 14th and Richardson feels the Tigers may have peaked too early.
"We were pretty fit and we were up and running very early last year, whereas this year we're trying to pace ourselves with our fitness work a little bit more," he said. "In saying that, we're ready to go tomorrow night and looking forward to it and both teams would want to win the game for sure. But I think we're just taking it a little bit slower this year and hopefully we peak later in the season."
Meanwhile, with the arrival of Chris Heffernan from Essendon and the departures of Shane Woewodin (Collingwood) and Stephen Powell (St Kilda), the Melbourne midfield will have a different look this year.
"You'll see some new faces," Leoncelli said. "You'll (also) see Matthew Whelan come out of the backline and into the middle. Scotty Thompson - who was injured for most of last season - and Guy Rigoni (returning from a serious back injury).
"Neale will rotate six, seven, eight blokes through the middle, but the new faces will be the biggest change."
afl.com.au
9:49:54 PM Thu 20 February, 2003
Avoiding a trip to Geraldton on the mid-Western Australian coast is the main motivation that will be driving both Melbourne and Richmond when they meet in the opening match of the Wizard Home Loans Cup on Friday night.
With this year's pre-season competition reverting back from a round-robin to a knock-out series, the loser of Friday night's match is scheduled to play the loser of the West Coast-Fremantle match in a practice match at Geraldton the following week.
Geraldton is about 500 kilometres north of Perth.
The winner, on the other hand, will meet the victor of Saturday's Essendon-Kangaroos clash in Canberra, at Telstra Dome on the same weekend.
"I think we're off to Geraldton in Western Australia if we lose, so we're pretty keen to win," Melbourne midfielder Andrew Leoncelli said.
"We're really keen to win tomorrow night, for our fans as much as ourselves. We also like to play on the better grounds. If you win, you stay in Melbourne playing against good opposition, instead of going (away). It's good to get out to the country, but some of the grounds you play on aren't fantastic, so it's better to play at Telstra Dome. We're really excited about tomorrow night and we really want to win."
Star Tigers forward Matthew Richardson agreed that the longer teams can remain in the Wizard Cup, the better their preparation for the season proper.
"There's no doubt that teams want to stay in the Wizard Cup competition," Richardson said. "As Andrew said, you get to stay on the Telstra ground and you're getting a good workout in that. Guys would prefer to stay in the Wizard Cup, that's for sure, so every team will be out to win it."
Richardson sported a bandage on his left hand at a media conference with Leoncelli at the Red Cross Blood Service.
The players were on hand to show their appreciation to the Red Cross and blood donors for the support they provided to victims of last October's Bali tragedy.
The Tiger injured his wrist at home last weekend, but declared himself a certain starter against the Demons.
"It's fine. I gave it a bit of a sprain on the weekend. I trained today and everything felt good, so I'll be ready to go tomorrow night and looking forward to the game."
Richardson also said that ruckman-forward Brad Ottens will also run out in the yellow and black on Friday night, despite the big man missing training on Thursday morning.
"Brad likes to have 24 hours off before a game, so he trained yesterday with a few of the boys."
And while the Tigers are keen to perform well in the Wizard Cup, repeating their grand final appearance in last year's pre-season competition is not a major priority.
After blitzing Collingwood in the opening round of the regular season, Richmond went on to have a dismal year, finishing 14th and Richardson feels the Tigers may have peaked too early.
"We were pretty fit and we were up and running very early last year, whereas this year we're trying to pace ourselves with our fitness work a little bit more," he said. "In saying that, we're ready to go tomorrow night and looking forward to it and both teams would want to win the game for sure. But I think we're just taking it a little bit slower this year and hopefully we peak later in the season."
Meanwhile, with the arrival of Chris Heffernan from Essendon and the departures of Shane Woewodin (Collingwood) and Stephen Powell (St Kilda), the Melbourne midfield will have a different look this year.
"You'll see some new faces," Leoncelli said. "You'll (also) see Matthew Whelan come out of the backline and into the middle. Scotty Thompson - who was injured for most of last season - and Guy Rigoni (returning from a serious back injury).
"Neale will rotate six, seven, eight blokes through the middle, but the new faces will be the biggest change."
