Many people have recently questioned whether the young Bombers side will run out of puff before the season finishes but Matthew Knights believes his side will continue to improve and make a legitimate run towards September.

 

Knights today acknowledged that there had been concerns about the heavy workloads of some young players - particularly Paddy Ryder- but is confident they are being managed well enough to run the season out.

 

“The fitness crew and the coaches work really closely together to make sure during the week we have the right training load, so if they are playing a lot of game time we can manage them during the week,” he said.

 

“We are pretty comfortable that the guys will keep pushing pretty hard for the remainder of the season.

 

“Paddy Ryder was the one we were most concerned with. Once Hille, Laycock and Bellchambers went down, it meant there was going to be a massive responsibility and massive amounts of game time for him.

 

“But we’ve got the feedback this week that he is feeling pretty good about everything, he is feeling good in himself and his body and hopefully he can keep going and play the level he has all year.”

 

 

Knights said he is pleased with the depth his squad is starting to show and the improvement of many younger players who will only continue to develop further in coming seasons.

 

“With a lot of our young players we feel that over the next two or three years we will be able to build up their training loads and pre-seasons as they get bigger and stronger,"" he said. 

 

“There is an age demographic in our side. Last week our two key defenders were aged 18 and 19 respectively, together with two really young ruckman, it is a great tonic for the club.

 

“Probably the most disappointing aspect of the season has been that we haven’t been able to get a lot of games through Michael Still, Scott Gumbleton and Jay Neagle due to various reasons.

 

“We are getting plenty of games for younger players in the back half and in the midfield we are adding depth and youth and re-energizing that part of our game.”

 

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Knights said his team needs to bring the intensity and pressure they showed in the first half against the Bulldogs to defeat a Richmond side who will be looking to redeem themselves.

 

“The second quarter against the Bulldogs was probably the most pleasing 10-15 minutes of football out of the whole year for us,” he said.

 

“The game was going up and down, there were no stoppages and the pressure was relentless from both teams. We held our own out there for a 15-20 minute period, I was really proud of the guys.

 

“We might not have been able to maintain that for the second half but that was our learning development out of the game that we can bring to this week.

 

“Richmond was quite brilliant in their first half last week; they kicked 11 goals, had plenty of run out of defence and linked up really well through the big MCG ground.

 

“They looked like a very good side in the first half, also with potentially Cousins and possibly Foley and Cotchin returning it will only strengthen them.

 

“I think the form line for the game is not too bad and Richmond will be a tough opposition.”