Light at the end of the tunnel...we can still bottom out

[Spirit of Jack]

OK the most bleedingly obvious thing the Tigers had to do after 2004 was bottom out for 3 to 5 years.

Smart PRE'nders understood that because our list was by a long margin the worst in the AFL and it would take 7 to 10 years to become a premiership threat. Funnily enough independant media experts espoused the same view.

It was only the Tiger supporters, Greg & Terry who saw it differently, they saw building a winning culture as more important.

Very sorry the aforementioned, you have been proven wrong.

I would take Deledio, 04, Murphy 05 & Gibbs 06 over a winning culture anyday.

Its not too late Tigers (that's supporters, Terry & Greg) , take your medicine, beef up your recruiting department and bottom out for the next few years.

PS Yes, I know good clubs dont need to bottom out, but we are the worst club in the AFL and have been for 25 years.

 

[mb64]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

 

[Spirit of Jack]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

As I said, we need to bottom out for up to 5 years. Not finish last then go back to 9th for the umpteemth time.

 

[The_General]

I think we need to finish stone motherless last, and get ourselves a priority pick (or does that only work if you're crap for 2 consecutive years?).

We need to get some quality tall timber. We need to get some midfielders who can kick to a target, and who can go in and get their own ball.

Then we need to retire the battle scared duds from the list. Trade em, delist em, it's time to move on.

 

[Ridley]

but we are the worst club in the AFL and have been for 25 years.

Can't see how anyone could argue against that.

 

[johnson2richo2003]

I think we need to finish stone motherless last, and get ourselves a priority pick (or does that only work if you're crap for 2 consecutive years?).

We wont get a priority pick this year due to us winning more than 8ish games in 06/07.

 

[mb64]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

As I said, we need to bottom out for up to 5 years. Not finish last then go back to 9th for the umpteemth time.

No side should bottom out for 5 years.We've had enough bottoming out.

 

[Spirit of Jack]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

As I said, we need to bottom out for up to 5 years. Not finish last then go back to 9th for the umpteemth time.

No side should bottom out for 5 years.We've had enough bottoming out.

No we havnt bottom out, we have been in no man's land for more years than I can remember due to trading picks for established players.

 

[johnson2richo2003]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

As I said, we need to bottom out for up to 5 years. Not finish last then go back to 9th for the umpteemth time.

No side should bottom out for 5 years.We've had enough bottoming out.

No we havnt bottom out, we have been in no man's land for more years than I can remember due to trading picks for established players.

Perhaps we should go the other way this year and offer up:
Joel Bowden & Pettifer?

 

[lamb22]

The light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

I'm doing a Mario Milano on this one. (one for the oldies to figure out)

 

[theglove3]

Disagree against continually bottoming out General, as if that happens we will be in financial woe with the threat of being wound up, as Membership would fall to 10,000 and then you're stuffed! The Club that is not you!

 

[AstuteTiger]

We supposedly bottomed out a couple of years ago.

As I said, we need to bottom out for up to 5 years. Not finish last then go back to 9th for the umpteemth time.

Mav in 2002, 2003 and 2004 we finished bottom 4 in all of those years...I think in 2005 we should of picked up another 2 or 3 players in the draft to bolster our list.....3 players in the ND was not enough and White in the PSD was good, he will be a good player.

 

[Tygrys]

I listened to everyones favourite whipping boy this morning on SEN Dermott Brereton who talked about again how teams can rebound too quickly off the bottom of the ladder during the rebuilding stage. He highlighted Wallaces pride, how it drove him when he took over to recruit and select players that would maximise Richmonds chances of climbing the ladder immediately. Basically he was saying that Wallaces ego couldn't stand a team he coached finishing bottom or near bottom, even if this meant that in the long run this damaged the club by costing essential and irreplaceable draft picks. I think there is perhaps something in what Brereton said, Wallace was hailed as something of a saviour when he came to this club, consequently the pressure not to take anything that looks as backward step must have been great.

It will be interesting to see if Wallace can reinvent himself, if he has the humility to do so. Bottoming out and heavily trading for extra draft picks is our only hope. Winning culture is meaningless when you don't have players with either the ability or the heart to make it happen. Our first objective should be the get the best young talent available in the country; ruthlessly, single-mindedly and cynically if necessary. That's why this forum is in meltdown, because so many of us just can't see a light at the end of the tunnel. Of holding on to players that have failed us again and again, of doing dinky little trades here and there at the margins in the hope that we simply maintain our position on the ladder, of not getting access to any of the highest rank juniors that we so desperately need. Again it's not losing that's killing us, it's the feeling that we are going nowhere, that the best that we can aspire too under the Wallace/Royal/Miller plan is to finish somewhere around the middle of the ladder and try and hold that into the future. Bottoming out and trading for additional draft picks is painful but it gives you hope. So until we do that, let's hear no more 'winning culture' spin-doctoring - until you recruit enough youngsters to do it it's just a load of hot air anyhow. .

 

[rokin.tiger]

St Kilda were sh!t for how many years???? Now look at 'em, who would of thought the Riewoldts and the Kossies were gona turn out like this? No one, except Grant Thomas.