ALAN Richardson will not change Nick Riewoldt’s combative style of football, St Kilda’s senior coach said on Thursday morning.
Riewoldt was concussed against the Crows in round seven and spent the night in Royal Adelaide hospital. Three days later he was ruled out of the club’s next game against West Coast, prompting former Brisbane Lions player Jonathan Brown to call for him to reconsider his future in the game.
Despite this, Richardson has no plans to alter Riewoldt’s style of play.
“I think it’s pretty hard to change the way someone plays,” Richardson said.
“It’s been ingrained for a long time now. He’s an aggressive player and he plays hard.
“Both he and Lonie were coming in to lay tackles on blokes that were turning and perhaps he could do a little bit more to get his head out of the way, but I’m never going to try and curb the way he plays.”
ARTICLE: Saints launch indigenous guernsey
Richardson was aware there was ‘a lot of noise’ around Riewoldt’s future, but after plenty of testing both inside and outside the club, has all but confirmed his skipper will return to action this Sunday against Brisbane.
“There was a lot of noise externally about his future but that wasn’t really the case here,” he said.
“He passed tests as early as last week, it was the fact that he’d been knocked out for a couple of minutes that meant we did a bit more work on it. He pulled up really well.
“Nick is as close to a lock in as you can get. He’s trained well and had really good meetings throughout the week with the medicos. He’s ready to go.”
Become a member. Click HERE or call 1300 GO SAINTS.
Like Riewoldt, Jack Lonie and Jimmy Webster are listed as ‘test’ on this week’s injury list following concussions, while Jarryn Geary (corked thigh) and Luke Delaney (hip) are expected to return.
“There is still a little bit of water to go under the bridge,” Richardson said.
“We’re a chance to have a few changes and whilst West Coast is second on the ladder… we were pretty disappointed by the time the game was done and dusted [last Saturday].
“If you don’t play four quarters of strong footy then you put your position in jeopardy. We’ve had some reasonably strong performances at VFL level.”
Defenders Tom Lee and Hugh Goddard have been in good form for Sandringham in recent weeks, while winger Farren Ray and midfielder Seb Ross have both recovered from hamstring injuries.
“Seb really imposed himself in his first game back,” Paul Hudson said in his VFL review earlier this week.
“He was strong in the contest [and] got through unscathed. We were happy with his efforts.”
VFL MATCH REPORT: Lee stands tall in Sandringham loss
