Damien Hardwick | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Damien Hardwick

We couldn’t. We had to strip back $3m from our soft cap. Hence why Leppa and Macrae left.
Has the soft cap affected other clubs so much?
Do the expansionist clubs and/or Sydney get an exemption?
Do we overpay the likes of McRae and Leppitsch? Surely there must be a ball park figure for a senior assistant. Where does our soft cap money go?

I think we need a refresh of some staff. If we have to pay tax, so be it. No use having money in the bank if we need renos done and the place is falling down around our ears. False economy to me.
 
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Dimma took us from the worst team since Fitzroy, a team some were saying wouldn't win a game in 5 years, to 3 Premierships in 4 years.

If they announced a 10 year contract extension for him tomorrow, I might raise an eyebrow, but not two (no, I'm not monobrow either)

FACT!
Fact
Dimma has spent 20 of the last 21 rounds complaining about Rules , Umpiring and Grounds !!
Pity he can’t couldn’t focus on the clearances from centre square
Please spare me !! . Been the biggest downturn in AFL club for a long long long
We are basically 18th in the comp in a lot of key areas
Suggest you go and look up how poor we have been this year . Poorly coached . They still haven’t worked out the transition into F50 between Riewoldt and Lynch
It ain’t the hard
 
Has the soft cap affected other clubs so much?
Do the expansionist clubs and/or Sydney get an exemption?
Do we overpay the likes of McRae and Leppitsch? Surely there must be a ball park figure for a senior assistant. Where does our soft cap money go?

I think we need a refresh of some staff. If we have to pay tax, so be it. No use having money in the bank if we need renos done and the place is falling down around our ears. False economy to me.
It affects all clubs. Leppa and Macrae were out of contract so were the obvious ones to go. We also lost Rob Inness to Sydney which was arguably the biggest loss.
 
I said in a post 2 weeks ago
No doubt has ability
Issues are outside the club
End of story
Issues which by all accounts he is rectifying. Nothing to suggest he is off the rails now. You need to let go of the Stack obsession.
 
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Fact
Dimma has spent 20 of the last 21 rounds complaining about Rules , Umpiring and Grounds !!
Pity he can’t couldn’t focus on the clearances from centre square
Please spare me !! . Been the biggest downturn in AFL club for a long long long
We are basically 18th in the comp in a lot of key areas
Suggest you go and look up how poor we have been this year . Poorly coached . They still haven’t worked out the transition into F50 between Riewoldt and Lynch
It ain’t the hard

FACT! > Fact
 
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In 2017 Dimma took us to first from 13th. In 2021 he has taken us from 1st to 13th. Seems to be some consistency there.
 
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Beavis, as no. 1 priority, needs to address the Centre square.

Sure injuries and the Covid shuffle have derailed our title defence.
And the sHocking rules changes by Gilquarters.
The centre clearance domination (by other sides that is) has us constantly on the back foot.
You just can't win playing like this.

We are 18th for Clearances. (Stone, motherless!)

We are 16th for Hit outs.
We are 16th for Kicks.
We are 14th for Marks.

We are 1st for Clangers. 1st!
I know it's not his fault our players couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Maybe he needs to put a rocket or 3 up the recruiters and say "No more Butchers to be recruited, Please!
If I want a Butcher, I'll go to Tasman".

For mine, massive fail by Beavis this year.
And yes I love the guy for what he has done for us. He is a Legend of the RFC.
Hail Dimma, 2022!
 
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Beavis, as no. 1 priority, needs to address the Centre square.

Sure injuries and the Covid shuffle have derailed our title defence.
And the sHocking rules changes by Gilquarters.
The centre clearance domination (by other sides that is) has us constantly on the back foot.
You just can't win playing like this.

We are 18th for Clearances. (Stone, motherless!)

We are 16th for Hit outs.
We are 16th for Kicks.
We are 14th for Marks.

We are 1st for Clangers. 1st!
I know it's not his fault our players couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Maybe he needs to put a rocket or 3 up the recruiters and say "No more Butchers to be recruited, Please!
If I want a Butcher, I'll go to Tasman".

For mine, massive fail by Beavis this year.
And yes I love the guy for what he has done for us. He is a Legend of the RFC.
Hail Dimma, 2022!
Just regarding clangers, free kicks against also count as clangers as well so considering how many we give away that wouldn't help.

But our disposal this year has been woeful as well.
 
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Do we have overpriced assistants that we could not have kept some previous talent?
An example of 2021 assistants according site that shall not be named
Geelong - James Rahilly / Matty Knights / Mathew Scarlett / Corey Enright / Nigel Lappin / Shaun Grigg
GWS - Steve Johson / Craig Lambert / Mark McVeigh / Adam Schneider / Luke Kelly
Hawthorn - Sam Mitchell / Brendon Bolton / Chris Newman / Craig McRae / Andy Otten / Damian Monkhurst
Richmond - Adam Kingsley / Andrew McQualter / Sam Lonergan / Ivan Maric / Xavier Clarke
 
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Do we have overpriced assistants that we could not have kept some previous talent?
An example of 2021 assistants according site that shall not be named
Geelong - James Rahilly / Matty Knights / Mathew Scarlett / Corey Enright / Nigel Lappin / Shaun Grigg
GWS - Steve Johson / Craig Lambert / Mark McVeigh / Adam Schneider / Luke Kelly
Hawthorn - Sam Mitchell / Brendon Bolton / Chris Newman / Craig McRae / Andy Otten / Damian Monkhurst
Richmond - Adam Kingsley / Andrew McQualter / Sam Lonergan / Ivan Maric / Xavier Clarke

From that group I'd take one from each: Matty Knights, "Sheep" Lambert, "Fly" McRae and Ivan Maric.
They would make a wonderful group of assistant coaches.
 
Beavis, as no. 1 priority, needs to address the Centre square.

Sure injuries and the Covid shuffle have derailed our title defence.
And the sHocking rules changes by Gilquarters.
The centre clearance domination (by other sides that is) has us constantly on the back foot.
You just can't win playing like this.

We are 18th for Clearances. (Stone, motherless!)

We are 16th for Hit outs.
We are 16th for Kicks.
We are 14th for Marks.

We are 1st for Clangers. 1st!
I know it's not his fault our players couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Maybe he needs to put a rocket or 3 up the recruiters and say "No more Butchers to be recruited, Please!
If I want a Butcher, I'll go to Tasman".

For mine, massive fail by Beavis this year.
And yes I love the guy for what he has done for us. He is a Legend of the RFC.
Hail Dimma, 2022!
Yep def starts in the engine room, tbh even in our winning seasons I was surprised we weren’t further exploited in this area, we miraculously came good in finals last year
 
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for a long long long
Why can I just hear you singing,
a la la la la long, a la la la long long li long long
Girl I'm going to make you sweat, sweat til you can't sweat no more
 
I think what this year has shown is the game plan isn't as important as your ability and desire to execute it.

You can win in any number of ways and our method has always been a bit of an outlier, especially around clearance.

This year we have lost the ability (via available personnel) and the desire to execute it. I think the structure can still work if we can be healthy enough and motivated enough to deliver it, just as I think a high possession, ball control game can work, or an ultra defensive model, or a penetrating kicking game or any other method we've seen with the right players at the right time.

Agree - I think desire or motivation has looked a bit off and we have missed some of our better players at the wrong time of the year - the run home.

We tipped over the balance of having too many young / inexperienced players play at once for most of the year and our strength through our 4 years of dominance was our defence - we also lost that this year.
 
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I think what this year has shown is the game plan isn't as important as your ability and desire to execute it.

You can win in any number of ways and our method has always been a bit of an outlier, especially around clearance.

This year we have lost the ability (via available personnel) and the desire to execute it. I think the structure can still work if we can be healthy enough and motivated enough to deliver it, just as I think a high possession, ball control game can work, or an ultra defensive model, or a penetrating kicking game or any other method we've seen with the right players at the right time.
Truth. Game plans are only as good as the players you have at your disposal. A quality list can execute any game plan.
 
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A quality list can execute any game plan.
Maybe, I'm not so sure. Our success was about pressure and territory, could our list have executed possession/ skill-based play? I don't think so. . Could other sides with quality lists have executed our chaos style? I don't think so.
 
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Beavis, as no. 1 priority, needs to address the Centre square.

Sure injuries and the Covid shuffle have derailed our title defence.
And the sHocking rules changes by Gilquarters.
The centre clearance domination (by other sides that is) has us constantly on the back foot.
You just can't win playing like this.

We are 18th for Clearances. (Stone, motherless!)

We are 16th for Hit outs.
We are 16th for Kicks.
We are 14th for Marks.

We are 1st for Clangers. 1st!
I know it's not his fault our players couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Maybe he needs to put a rocket or 3 up the recruiters and say "No more Butchers to be recruited, Please!
If I want a Butcher, I'll go to Tasman".

For mine, massive fail by Beavis this year.
And yes I love the guy for what he has done for us. He is a Legend of the RFC.
Hail Dimma, 2022!
Yep. And didn't GWS just school us on scores from turnovers as well? So ... WE GOT NUTHIN!

It's just amazing how we won 3/4 flags, only to drop off so far as this. Highly disappointing for The Tiger Army. Especially in the context of Covid depression. I'm sure that fantastic achievement was really as uplifting for all of us as it was for me. We could track this success through the Covid fog and get some joy out of life still. But we couldn't actually attend the 2020 matches and be present for all that glory.

So this year we all hoped/expected it to be getting back to normal, and we'd be able to return to the G en masse as before and celebrate our mighty 'dimmasty' team in person, to follow one more throw at a flag ... a 3peat flag!

So despite all the huge joy for our achievements, harsh as it is to say it, 2021 has been a bucket of *smile* to swallow. The club needs a serious regroup for '22.
 
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