“Patchy” Tigers up for the challenge
FOLLOWING their fifth straight loss of the 2025 AFL Women’s season, Richmond now sits outright last on the ladder, but coach Ryan Ferguson backed his players to rise to the challenge of turning their season around. With just seven games to go, the Tigers are staring down the barrel of a disappointing season after making finals in 2024.
After GWS Giants broke through for their first win of 2025, it left Richmond anchored in 18th with a percentage of 52.5. The Tigers most recent loss came on Sunday at Ikon Park when they went down to Geelong by five goals. Four of their five losses have been by 20 points or more, with their 15-point defeat at the hands of Essendon in Darwin, the closest.
Despite the worrying early signs, Ferguson said the “morale’s fine” and that his group was up for “rising to a challenge” which they needed to do in order to get back on track.
“Now we’ve got to get our game going, so we’ve got a challenge in front of us,” he said. “Morale’s not been an issue in terms of week to week, getting at the training week and attacking our game to get better. “I’ve got no doubt that we’ll be able to rest up, recover and get into the week really strongly again but we’ve just got to make sure we get better.”
Ferguson said he appreciated the support the club had placed in him so far as the coach to lead them through the rough stint, and further stated it was time to put words into actions.
“The fact is we’re just in the now,” he said. “Up for a challenge, let’s turn this thing around, we can see it in patches but nowhere near enough. “What do we need to do right here, right now and let’s get at it.”
Richmond booted 0.3 to the Cats’ 4.7 in the first half, before kicking 4.2 to 4.4 in the second half, indicating a far better contest after the main break. When asked about why the Tigers’ second halves had been better than their first, Ferguson said it was one of the major focuses for his side to work out.
“We’ve got to figure that out, when we are seeing patches, patches are nowhere near enough, we don’t want to be a patches team,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out our second half this week and second half last week looked different to the first halves so we’ve got to make sure we make those adjustments in mindset, is it personnel, coaching wise we’ll be working hard to figure out.
“Ultimately the players deliver, but is there any little adjustments we can help just to set them up? “We got outworked in the first half well that’s a challenge and we have to accept that challenge.”
Richmond takes on St Kilda at RSEA Park this Sunday before a brutal trio of games against Brisbane, Adelaide and North Melbourne after that.
“Patchy” Tigers up for the challenge
FOLLOWING their fifth straight loss of the 2025 AFL Women’s season, Richmond now sits outright last on the ladder, but coach Ryan Ferguson backed his players to rise to the challenge of turning their season around. With just seven games to go, the Tigers are staring down the barrel of a disappointing season after making […]
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