Rugged defender Rory Thompson is set to again go head-to-head with St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt on Sunday, but the star forward could see more than one SUN backman on him throughout the game, a week after he had to deal with Carlton’s tactic of switching his opponent at regular intervals to keep up with his hard running.
Thompson did a sterling job on Riewoldt in round 1 last season when he picked up a Brownlow vote on the back of a 16-possession and eight-mark performance, whilst restricting the Saints star to a brace of goals. The veteran got off the leash in the round 22 match-up, though, as he kicked 4.5 from 26 disposals and a whopping 15 marks.
On Monday night, Carlton coach Mick Malthouse rotated defenders Michael Jamieson and Sam Rowe on Riewoldt – as they had done the previous week on Travis Cloke – although the Gold Coast-raised forward still finished with four majors.
GC SUNS assistant coach Matthew Primus said Thompson is every chance to man up on Riewoldt in Sunday’s game, but in-form key defender Steven May could also go to the veteran at times.
“Rory Thompson did an outstanding job on him last year up here at Metricon,” Primus said.
“Steven May has been fantastic for us this year, taking virtually all the key forwards and doing really good jobs on all those guys. So we’ve got two guys we think are pretty capable of playing on Nick.”
Primus was full of praise for the former Broadbeach junior - who has kicked 17 goals in four starts against the club based in his former home city - and said it would require a team effort to rein him in.
“Nick’s the dominant forward in the competition and we’re certainly not going to rely on those two (Thompson and May) to do a good job on him, but also the other back six, and also some of the delivery down there to him.
“But we’re pretty confident our key backs will be able to do the job on him, along with some help from their teammates.”
Riewoldt already has 22 goals from eight games this season, but St Kilda’s next highest goalkickers are rookie Jack Billings and senior midfielder Leigh Montagna who have both booted seven each.
Saints coach Alan Richardson said after Monday night’s loss to the Blues that he was concerned his young side was too focused on getting the ball to Riewoldt at the expense of other options inside their forward 50.
“It was almost ‘Rooey’ or nothing ahead of the footy...which is a bit of a worry for us,” Richardson said.
“Even when he was double-teamed, we kicked it to him, but that’s because he moves so hard, he captures the eye. It’s about others around him; the message for the rest of our forwards is to make sure they keep working hard to present and earn the trust of their teammates.
