I waited 6 months for round 1, hoping all went according to plan during the preseason, and that we could be competitive enough to show we may make a little progress this year. My expectations were realistic, knowing we had only won 3 of our last 10 games last year. Terry can't turn over the whole list over night.
The Western Bulldogs have gone through this also, it takes years to make progress. Eventually it happens with good drafting and coaching.
Take a look at last night. The bulldogs were awesome! I doubt any team could have counter played to their style of football. First off, regardless of what the bulldogs are doing, you must stick to your game plan if your a chance to win. With a great deal of skill and pace the bulldogs made us look worse than we could have played. Every pass that counted, hit their mark, every shot at goal that counted, went through the posts. All of a sudden the tigers started reacting. Chasing from behind, poor kicks under enormous pressure not manning up, leaving to much space, etc.
What ever Terry instructed these players to do pre game was irrelevant. They were being pelted, physically and mentally. Our defensive plan to stop this onslaught probably needed more thought. But who could have defensively planned against the brand of football the bulldogs played last night. You couldn't, I haven't seen it before. I believe the bulldogs will be hard to beat this year. You go in with a plan to win, maybe a plan B if the other side dominates, but there's no plan C against that style of football unless you have the skill to do exactly the same back. Which would make a brilliant game to watch. But Richmond just cant do it yet. Maybe in a few years when our second tier players develop and better drafting.
I wish it was Richmond who played champagne football last night. But realistically how could we? 3 wins in our last 10. Not to many changes on field. The bulldogs are a maturing team which has been were we are now. If we had played any other team last night we may have been a lot more competitive, if we got our noses in front, we may have even won. The bulldogs got the jump on us by playing extremely freakish football. Then finished us off by mentally breaking us to submission. Who knows what we could have done if it were a different side we played, we could have been coming off a win, confidence up, and all these posts would have been positive.
Remember it is the year of the dog, and that may be in more ways than one.
The Western Bulldogs have gone through this also, it takes years to make progress. Eventually it happens with good drafting and coaching.
Take a look at last night. The bulldogs were awesome! I doubt any team could have counter played to their style of football. First off, regardless of what the bulldogs are doing, you must stick to your game plan if your a chance to win. With a great deal of skill and pace the bulldogs made us look worse than we could have played. Every pass that counted, hit their mark, every shot at goal that counted, went through the posts. All of a sudden the tigers started reacting. Chasing from behind, poor kicks under enormous pressure not manning up, leaving to much space, etc.
What ever Terry instructed these players to do pre game was irrelevant. They were being pelted, physically and mentally. Our defensive plan to stop this onslaught probably needed more thought. But who could have defensively planned against the brand of football the bulldogs played last night. You couldn't, I haven't seen it before. I believe the bulldogs will be hard to beat this year. You go in with a plan to win, maybe a plan B if the other side dominates, but there's no plan C against that style of football unless you have the skill to do exactly the same back. Which would make a brilliant game to watch. But Richmond just cant do it yet. Maybe in a few years when our second tier players develop and better drafting.
I wish it was Richmond who played champagne football last night. But realistically how could we? 3 wins in our last 10. Not to many changes on field. The bulldogs are a maturing team which has been were we are now. If we had played any other team last night we may have been a lot more competitive, if we got our noses in front, we may have even won. The bulldogs got the jump on us by playing extremely freakish football. Then finished us off by mentally breaking us to submission. Who knows what we could have done if it were a different side we played, we could have been coming off a win, confidence up, and all these posts would have been positive.
Remember it is the year of the dog, and that may be in more ways than one.
