David Schwarz believes the huge 95,000-strong crowd at the MCG for Saturday’s preliminary final between Richmond and the GWS Giants can only assist the Tigers.
Despite considering Richmond to have “grown up” in their ability to handle big pressure games this year, two-time Geelong premiership coach Mark “Bomber” Thompson raised the prospect of the mega crowd – who will mainly be donned in the yellow and black – working against the Tigers.
“It can work both ways for Richmond… I’ve seen it bring them home and I’ve seen it sort of scare the players to the point where they don’t feel like playing,” he told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 yesterday.
However Schwarz dismissed this possibility, saying that from his past experiences playing in front of huge crowds, the roar the Tigers fans will generate will be a great help to their side.
“It won’t work against them. It can only help,” the former Melbourne forward told SEN’s The Run Home.
“I’ve played a lot of footy at the G and had big crowds on our side and bigger crowds against us. The noise that came when you played a big Essendon crowd, a big Richmond crowd, a huge Collingwood crowd or a big Carlton crowd is deafening. You hear everything, it’s very unique.
“There’s no doubt that when 95,000 fans are cheering for one team, I can just imagine the Richmond players, how much energy it will give them. They will be walking on air.
“I don’t think it can be a negative in any way unless they start believing it rather than doing what they’re doing all season.
“It helps with the umpires too.”
The AFL have today updated their expected crowd attendance for Saturday’s game to fall somewhere between 95,000 and 97,000 people.
Reports earlier this week suggested that Giants supporters have bought approximately only 2000 tickets to the game – with the match expected to have the biggest difference of supporter numbers in attendance in the competition’s history.
If Richmond are to win, they will break the AFL’s current longest Grand Final streak at 35 years, while GWS would play in their debut Grand Final as a club if they were to cause a major boilover.
The game gets underway at 4:45 PM on Saturday afternoon.