Round 5, 2008 Opposition Player Focus: Will Thursfield

[Sedat]

First up, many thanks to Dry Rot and Lantern for extending the invitation to me to provide the opposition player focus thread for this week’s important game against Richmond. Hopefully I can do half as good a job as Lantern and The Underdog have done in preceeding weeks.

It would be very easy to single out a number of key Tiger players for this thread, namely Richo for his athleticism, work-rate and sheer size (attributes that have proven too hot for us to handle frequently in the past), Foley and Johnson, whose inside midfield work reached top shelf levels yesterday against Freo and which gave their runners first use of the ball to the staggering tune of 151 more total possessions, the underrated (this season) ruck combination of Pattison/Simmonds, who provided a much stronger ruck division on paper with the mother of all hidings yesterday and who were key components of the afore-mentioned lopsided possession count (and who also comprehensively beat the Collingwood ruck division the week before), and even guys like Brown, McMahon and Deledio, who provided the outside polish to the inside work (one area that Richmond have lacked for a very long time). But I have plumped for the one Richmond player who has anchored their defensive unit all season without many platitudes outside of the inner sanctum at Tigerland but like our own Dale Morris would be one of the first players picked each week for his side, Will Thursfield. From what I’ve seen of Thursfield this season, he is fast becoming the most critical player in the Richmond structure, for not only is he effectively negating his direct opponent (and opposition’s key forward no less), he is also now providing great rebound drive, a quality that his immediate predecessor, Darren Gaspar, never provided during his time at the Tigers.



http://www.richmondfc.com.au/Season2...14462&typeid=2

D.O.B: 19th April, 1986 (Age 22 – by next Sunday)
Recruited from: Ormond/Sandringham U18’s
Height and Weight: 191cm / 83 kg
Drafted: 2005 Rookie Elevation
Debut: 2005
Games: 26

Player Profile: (From www.aflfantasymanager.com – the profile on the official club website is embarrassingly dated):
Drafted in 2005 from the rookie list, Thursfield is a tall defender who looks to have the potential to become an important player for Richmond. He struggled with injury through 2006 but played 15 games in 2007 and looked impressive. He will be hoping to find a regular spot in the Tigers defence in 2008.

Young Thursfield has always showed the necessary composure and technique to become a key position defender in the AFL but his skinny frame has until this season precluded him from being able to effectively take on the biggest key forwards in the game – a season ending knee injury early in 2006 also put paid to his development for a season. However he is starting to add some muscle to his frame (still a way to go) and so far in season 2008 has either broken even or beaten all key opposition forwards he has come up against. He is fast developing an excellent understanding with his fellow defenders, Kelvin Moore and Jake King, and together they are providing rebound drive from deep in the Richmond defensive 50 (their combined rapid development is probably the key reason why Joel Bowden spent last weekend at Coburg). Unfortunately, being relatively early in his career to date (and probably because he is not a human highlights reel), there is no youtube vision to show. The Richmond hierarchy would probably have him leading their B&F count at this stage of the season; the regard they have for Thursfield can be illistrated by the fact that he has not missed a single minute of game time this season to date.

Thursfield is very adept at the core competencies of key defensive play, namely great spoiling technique, sound judgment and good timing. He also possesses excellent closing speed which allows him to play on the more explosive key forwards off the mark and also the smaller key forwards. One other aspect to his game that he also possesses is a cat-like recovery after killing the initial marking contest. It is this quality that has seen him develop from a purely defensive player into an asset to his side by providing rebound drive from deep in his team’s defence, thereby developing a more attacking mindset to his game. His disposal efficiency is hovering around 90% this season, so when he does get his hands on the ball he invariably finds a target further up field. He is averaging 4 kicks, 4 marks and 6.5 handballs a game this season, well up on his previous output. Not surprisingly, he is in the top echelon in the competition for effective spoils this season as well.

Who Thursfield will ultimately match up against will be a fascinating subplot to this week’s game. There is no standout match-up for him in our side, and I think he will spend patches on the likes of Welsh, Johnson and possibly even Minson. The key to reducing Thursfield's effectiveness is to ensure that he is kept as deep as possible – I would like to see Minson spend extended periods deep forward this week to try and utilize his obvious size advantage against Thursfield (however Minson will need to work extremely hard when the ball hits the deck to prevent Thursfield from rebounding), but then also to act as a decoy forward on occasions and allow our coaching panel to create mis-matches up forward against other Richmond defenders. This was a tactic North Melbourne were spectacularly successful with in Round 2 when they isolated Jake King deep in defence, placing him in a vulnerable position on the ground and at the same time taking away his rebounding strength – in this game Thursfield was generally sucked away from the play and was kept at arms length of the contest as a result. Thursfield is also good at leaving his man to play 3rd tall in the contest so we need to be smart about ensuring his accountability to his direct opponent can also be exploited on occasions. In short we will need to continuously mix up our attacking structure to create the best possible match-ups to suit our strengths.

[Dry Rot]

Very interesting choice Sedat and a great write-up. Thanks.

Will be very interesting to see who he takes and how we deal with him. He's not Dustin Fletcher, but last game we weren't that clever with our forward delivery half the time and Fletcher diffused many attacks.

Anyone watch the Freo v Tigers game? How was Thursfield used in that game?

[hujsh]

I remember when he did his knee. He was towling up Riewoldt and after he went off Riewoldt cut loose and won the game.

It was funny to see him vs Sandilands in the goal square. 20cm difference.

[Sedat]

It was funny to see him vs Sandilands in the goal square. 20cm difference.

He toweled up Fevola, Nathan Thompson and Rocca prior to this weekend, where he completely mauled a combination of Tarrant, McPharlin and Sandilands. He's played on plenty of different types already this season and handled every job with aplomb so far.

[LostDoggy]

It appears that Richmond see him as the go to man for the tall amongst the oppostion forwards. Accordingly he is likely to go to Big Will.

That will suit us as it leaves Johnson and Welsh to be looked after by their number two and three backmen which will favour us in a big way.

Big Will demands attention simply because of his size and if Thursfield chooses to give him space by being third man up etc Will should make him pay where it hurts.

[dog town]

Very good player. If he hadn't of done his knee a couple of years back he would be absolutely flying by now.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Yes interesting choice Sedat and nicely done,

He seems to have very long arms, but it could be that he wears that 2/3 sleave length, and that he does spoil so often

[Dry Rot]

Yes interesting choice Sedat and nicely done,

Agreed. Great thing about these threads is that they throw up a detailed focus on a player who is not as well covered/known as say Richo or Brown.

[The Underdog]

Well done Sedat. As others have said an interesting choice of player. To be honest before this year I didn't really rate Thursfield, seemed undersized and easily outbodied plus he struggled to use the ball when he got it. I haven't seen much of Richmond this year so it's interesting that he's stepped up, I'll be interested to see him on Sunday and would imagine he'd match up on Minson or Welsh with Schulz to potentially take the other.

[Dry Rot]

Has the development of Thursfield displaced Bowden?

[The Underdog]

Has the development of Thursfield displaced Bowden?

I think probably as well as the addition of McMahon and the development of King