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Tigers have no roar in round one Blues

By Mr Dandalooa

Richmond has defended star recruit addict Ben Cousins from accusations the recovering drug is a binge-drinker.

President Gary March denied reports the midfielder has a problem with binge-drinking after Cousins became the centre of wide-spread reports he drank for most of last year after being rushed to hospital twice this month with a stomach ailment.

The comments come as the Tigers suffered a humiliating 56-point loss to Carlton on Thursday night at the MCG, in a 18.12 (120) to 9.10 (64) smashing in stifling conditions.

March downplayed any reports that club officials spoke to the former Eagles skipper Cousins about curbing his drinking during the preseason as “unsubstantiated rumour and innuendo”.

He did, however, concede the Brownlow medallist was “no angel” and came to the Tigers club “with baggage”, but that Cousins did not receive a fair go from the media.

Coach Damien Hardwick, who coached his first official AFL game with the club, believes the only way is up for the Tigers and said he would use lessons learned from the round one defeat to hasten the development process his young squad was facing. 

Hardwick said since he brought 14 new players to the club the Tigers were still developing a style of play and that could take some time to rein in.

He noted debutants Dustin Martin, Ben Nason, and Relton Roberts all had solid performers in their first matches, and like the performances of most experienced players

“It’s a learning progress and we’ve just got to get better a hell of a lot quicker,” Hardwick said.

The coach remained positive and said the first round loss was “as poor as we’re going to get, as poor as I’m going to be as a head coach and as poor as the team is going to be also”.

Jack Riewoldt played well, with Hardwick adding that he was a good fit for Richmond.

Hardwick said after the game that the Tigers have “just got to add to that talent and continue to develop the talent we’ve already got”.

Richmond looked tired at times and began to dismantle with easy mistakes as the game wore on, when Carlton took advantage and blew the margin out from 19 points to almost 10 goals.

While remaining positive, Hardwick did concede that the Tigers, like their recruit Cousins, have got “a fair way to go”.

“There were some good signs but we’re still disappointed with the way we faded out,” he said.

Carlton on the other hand looked solid without Big Bad Brendan Fevola and has kick-started the post-Brendan Fevola era in positive fashion.

Blues captain Andrew Carrazzo had 40-possessions in his 100th game as he temporarily replaced the suspended Chris Judd.

Carrazzo said the opening game “would probably be the highlight [of my career] so far” and that the Blues were confident of filling the void left by Coleman medallist Fevola.

Returned gun Jarrad Waite was a key contributor in front of goals, bagging two including the opener after missing the bulk of season 2009 because of a knee reconstruction.

Waite said since since the Brisbane finals loss “all the boys have been pumped for round one, and to come out and put a good performance on is really good for our confidence”.

“It’s been a long preseason, it’s all worth it now, especially a good win like this tonight,” he said.

“We’ll review the game now and hopefully Brisbane next week, we’ve really got to perform well and hopefully get a win up there.”

Blues debutant and former Demon, Brock McLean, prove he was a good acquisition after getting 26 touches and a goal.