Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt says his side is focused on the positives of their season, declaring the media is programmed to look at the negatives.
Last Saturday’s defeat to Sydney was the latest gut-wrenching close loss for the Tigers, the fourth game they have lost by ten points or less.
He said last night’s upset victory by Hawthorn shows how even the competition is.
“There is a bit more to the story, the losses are always going to be focused on more because that’s how the media is programmed and fortunately we are programmed to look at the positives,” Riewoldt told SEN Breakfast.
“The positives are we were 20 points down behind Melbourne who are obviously playing some really good footy at the moment and we managed to come back and win that game.
“Other tight games around three quarter time we’ve managed to hold on and surge past sides. You just have to look at last night’s result to see how close the competition is and how much one quarter of momentum can swing a game in a sides favour.”
Despite the close losses, the Tigers sit in sixth place heading into Sunday’s clash against a resurgent Carlton, Riewoldt said no team can be written off as a premiership chance and believes while there are two or three sides that stand out anything is possible if things fall in the Tigers favour.
“That’s a lot of crystal balling there certainly has to be a lot of things go right, but a lot of things went right for the Bulldogs last year and they came from a position that was unorthodox in winning the premiership,” he said.
“Being outside that top four and the ladder just shows how tight it is and that any one if they can get it going at the right end of the year and start to push really hard toward that last day in September that they can get it right and come away with a victory.
“Certainly there is two to three real flag favourites, but after that it’s up for anyone to make their case and make their stake on a possible premiership this year.”
He expects reborn Blues defender Liam Jones to match up on him during the MCG encounter and admitted to studying up on him, considering the duo have not played on each other before.
“I have had a bit of a look at Liam I haven’t played against him so I’ll try and figure it out,” Riewoldt said.
“A lot of it is during the game constantly trying to figure out ways to get best result for yourself and the best for the team.”