With the 2003 season now completed, I can only ponder at what a disappointing year it has been.
Clearly the most disappointing aspect has been the fact that Richmond lost 13 out of their last 14 matches. Yes that is right 13 out of 14. If it wasn't for the fact that we started so well with 6 wins from our first 8 matches we would atleast be enjoying a priority draft pick right now.
Whilst we may not have the strongest list in the AFL with players on our list the quality of Ottens, Coughlan, Johnson, Campbell, Richardson, Gaspar, Chaffey, Kelleway, Stafford, Tivendale, Bowden, Rodan, Blumfield, Cameron, Newman, Krakouer and Fiora we have a far better list than our performances indicate. It is probably fair to say that with some of the talent in the Richmond team, that our side has been the most disappointing side in the AFL this year. Atleast the Bulldogs and Carlton have an excuse as to why they have performed so poorly.
Realistically we don't have any genuine excuses?
You can claim that injuries hurt us but somehow we managed to cover injured players in the first 8 weeks and thereafter we had a reasonably good run with injuries.
Losing 4 games by less than 7 points also hurts particularly when you are in front in 3 of them with a minute to go but hey good sides win the close ones.
A few things to me are obvious.
Firstly our worst 8 to 12 players on our list are not up to scratch and rarely if ever perform. You can only hope that there is some sense at the club and that Biddiscombe, King, Mills, Pettifer, Dragicevic, Houlihan, Rogers, Vardy etc are delisted.
Secondly of the quality players listed above that we do have, very rarely do they all gel together on the one day. How often do you see Richo, Johnson, Ottens, Stafford and Tivendale all fire up on the one day? That is not to be critical of the individuals I have just mentioned but all too often only one of these players will play a very good game.
Thirdly Danny Frawley for the past two years has not got the best out of the players at his disposal. You take a look at a side like Collingwood. Realistically their list is not that much stronger than ours. Both our list and their list is still essentially the same as Round 1 in 2002 when the Tigers smashed the Pies at the MCG. The big difference that I can see is that Malthouse has moulded a team that has leadership, that plays for each other, that is super displined and that believes in itself.
Richmond on the other hand has ordinary leadership, does not play for each other, has poor discipline (how many costly 50M penalties did we give this year) and has little or no belief in itself. As a result, Richmond languishes down in the bottom four for the second year in a row and Collingwood are right there in the mix for a second year in a row.
The hope that I do hang onto is that hopefully there is some coach out there that we will appoint that can get the best out of the current playing list. Because I refuse to believe that the quality of players on our list is that bad that we should be losing 13 out of our last 14 matches.
Clearly the most disappointing aspect has been the fact that Richmond lost 13 out of their last 14 matches. Yes that is right 13 out of 14. If it wasn't for the fact that we started so well with 6 wins from our first 8 matches we would atleast be enjoying a priority draft pick right now.
Whilst we may not have the strongest list in the AFL with players on our list the quality of Ottens, Coughlan, Johnson, Campbell, Richardson, Gaspar, Chaffey, Kelleway, Stafford, Tivendale, Bowden, Rodan, Blumfield, Cameron, Newman, Krakouer and Fiora we have a far better list than our performances indicate. It is probably fair to say that with some of the talent in the Richmond team, that our side has been the most disappointing side in the AFL this year. Atleast the Bulldogs and Carlton have an excuse as to why they have performed so poorly.
Realistically we don't have any genuine excuses?
You can claim that injuries hurt us but somehow we managed to cover injured players in the first 8 weeks and thereafter we had a reasonably good run with injuries.
Losing 4 games by less than 7 points also hurts particularly when you are in front in 3 of them with a minute to go but hey good sides win the close ones.
A few things to me are obvious.
Firstly our worst 8 to 12 players on our list are not up to scratch and rarely if ever perform. You can only hope that there is some sense at the club and that Biddiscombe, King, Mills, Pettifer, Dragicevic, Houlihan, Rogers, Vardy etc are delisted.
Secondly of the quality players listed above that we do have, very rarely do they all gel together on the one day. How often do you see Richo, Johnson, Ottens, Stafford and Tivendale all fire up on the one day? That is not to be critical of the individuals I have just mentioned but all too often only one of these players will play a very good game.
Thirdly Danny Frawley for the past two years has not got the best out of the players at his disposal. You take a look at a side like Collingwood. Realistically their list is not that much stronger than ours. Both our list and their list is still essentially the same as Round 1 in 2002 when the Tigers smashed the Pies at the MCG. The big difference that I can see is that Malthouse has moulded a team that has leadership, that plays for each other, that is super displined and that believes in itself.
Richmond on the other hand has ordinary leadership, does not play for each other, has poor discipline (how many costly 50M penalties did we give this year) and has little or no belief in itself. As a result, Richmond languishes down in the bottom four for the second year in a row and Collingwood are right there in the mix for a second year in a row.
The hope that I do hang onto is that hopefully there is some coach out there that we will appoint that can get the best out of the current playing list. Because I refuse to believe that the quality of players on our list is that bad that we should be losing 13 out of our last 14 matches.
