Our Poor Development of our kids

[CarnTheTiges]

Despite my preference for fresh blood, I am leaning towards Mick as well to counter reasons why we are sh!t.
Problem is he'll probably do well enough for the Pies to contract him again. He is still an excellent coach.

What the side needs is a real nasty coach who will cut deep for a few years, I think Malthouse can do that, but given that it's going to take 3 years to do that and the draft will be thinned out considerably for the next 5 years, he'd have to accept the job knowing that he'd be unlikely to take the side to the GF, he would however be able to lay the building blocks for whoever follows him.

 

[Pandaboy]

Guys like Campbell, Royal, King, Rawlings and McRae could be to blame, and maybe a change of personnel around skills and coaching development would make a world of difference. Whatever it may be, the way we approach developing our kids HAS TO CHANGE. I see the same old training drills down at Punt Road, over and over again like Groundhog Day, and there just seems to be a lack of new ideas around the way we do things. We need a complete change of culture, and some fresh blood. It is certainly not bringing out best in our players and I am sure many of our players are getting stale.

It is simply too much of a coincidence for players to change clubs and all of a sudden "blossom" into making huge leaps and bounds in improvement. Look at guys like Ottens, Roden, and many many more from other clubs who are simply shining after leaving.

I have been trolling some of the forums of other sides, and while we are definitely the laughing stock of the competition (the only reason guests log onto PRE is for some comedy), a LOT of other supporters have posted how their club should try and trade to get Tambling, while his currency would be at an all-time low at the moment. It is obvious we just are completely clueless in how to develop Richie, . . . . . other clubs are confident they can develop him and turn him into a great midfielder.

 

[Tiger Mick]

I agree with Pandaboy that some of the development coaches need to be replaced and should be accountable for the lack of development of some of the kids. Tambling however is a real dissappointment at such a high pick is losing $ value as a trade every time he plays a game for Richmond. If he continues the form that he has been showing the last couple of seasons and particularly this year, we will get nothing for him as a trade. You can
"lead a horse to water but you can't make it Drink. " Deledio is a champion in the making, and has shown enough. Rance is a champion, as is Raines, and McGuane, Moore, Jackson and White are the future. Cotchin is a gun but is going through growing pains. The list is still developing, but much slower than we thought, or should be. Good development coaches are able to fast track this development, but for some reason our blokes are taking longer than other clubs. It definitely is a coaching problem.

 

[Pandaboy]

If other clubs had gotten a hold of Deledio he would be without a doubt one of the Top 10 players in the competition right now.

Agree Rance, Raines and Cotch have huge futures, however not sure about the other guys you mentioned. McGuance, Moore, Jackson and White are real go'ers however I would say are 4 of the dumbest footballers I have ever seen. No football IQ whatsoever. Just seeing White as part of our MF makes me shake my head in disgust.

 

[Tigerhart04]

If other clubs had gotten a hold of Deledio he would be without a doubt one of the Top 10 players in the competition right now.

Agree Rance, Raines and Cotch have huge futures, however not sure about the other guys you mentioned. McGuance, Moore, Jackson and White are real go'ers however I would say are 4 of the dumbest footballers I have ever seen. No football IQ whatsoever. Just seeing White as part of our MF makes me shake my head in disgust.

Looks like it might drop off then Panda, me thinks White will be part of the Tigers for a quite a while to come. One of the few if only one who regularly tries to block, shepherd and help out his teammates. Agree he had an absolute shocker against the Dee's, but he's been in pretty good form for the first three rounds. May never be a Deledio or Cotchin skills wise, but the old adage is to be successful you need a "champion team not a team of champions".

I think his, Foley's and for that matter most of our midfield woes, may be attributed to a forward line that looks like it's stuck in a bog. Nobody leads up anymore. The midfield guys get it, run, look up and nada, unless Richo goes down forward and then the "kick it to Richo" scenario starts all over again.

Cotchin we all know about, but what makes you think Raines and Rance have huge futures?

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[DocBalls]

To get drafted, they all CAN PLAY football.
For years we've been tooo skinny and I don't believe enough time is spent working on the positive mental side of the game and the spirit of getting a team that believes the whole is mightier than the part.

 

[Pandaboy]

Looks like it might drop off then Panda, me thinks White will be part of the Tigers for a quite a while to come. One of the few if only one who regularly tries to block, shepherd and help out his teammates. Agree he had an absolute shocker against the Dee's, but he's been in pretty good form for the first three rounds. May never be a Deledio or Cotchin skills wise, but the old adage is to be successful you need a "champion team not a team of champions".

I think his, Foley's and for that matter most of our midfield woes, may be attributed to a forward line that looks like it's stuck in a bog. Nobody leads up anymore. The midfield guys get it, run, look up and nada, unless Richo goes down forward and then the "kick it to Richo" scenario starts all over again.

Cotchin we all know about, but what makes you think Raines and Rance have huge futures?

--Deleted----------------

I think Rance has shown enough in his first few games to show he will be a regular in our backline. Sure he coughs it up a bit and his foot skills have much to be desired sometimes, but he more than makes up for it with his 1% and putting his big body on the line.

I have always been a fan of Raines. While I don't see a huge amount of improvement out of him, I believe he will be a consistent performer coming out of the backline for us over the next few years. I would much rather the ball in his hands coming out of the opposition 50, rather than most of the dud kicks we already have in the backline (I just find it HILARIOUS that the paper reports that we bring in McTurnover to increase our foot skills out of the bakline). Add to that his dash and run from HB, I see him being a guy who should be picked in our best 22 week in week out.

 

[NZtiger]

Guys like Campbell, Royal, King, Rawlings and McRae could be to blame, and maybe a change of personnel around skills and coaching development would make a world of difference. Whatever it may be, the way we approach developing our kids HAS TO CHANGE. I see the same old training drills down at Punt Road, over and over again like Groundhog Day, and there just seems to be a lack of new ideas around the way we do things. We need a complete change of culture, and some fresh blood. It is certainly not bringing out best in our players and I am sure many of our players are getting stale.

I also think that you're spot on there Pandaboy. 5 years of the same processes yielding very little improvement has got to become very tiresome to the playing group. 1/2 of them have probably well and truely switched off. The current coaching staff (with the exception of Campbell) have had ample time to shown their hands. I'm sure they've given it their best, but they simply can't and won't take the boys any further.

 

[Skills]

I've been seeing a lot of posts of late talking about the diabolical draft selections we have made (especially between 1999-2004), and while I agree that the recruiters have a lot to answer for with their bizarre selections, they are not completely at fault. These kids were obviously respective stars in their junior footy days, and our scoutsmen obviously saw a lot of potential in these guys to hopefully become 200+ game players for us. However I do not see the blame directed towards out pathetic development program/culture.

It is obvious that it is rare to draft a kid who is a "ready-made" football player that requires little development from a club, which means that a club's professional development program of it's kids is of paramount important. A Development program may involve skills coaches, mentors, off-fields programs, leadership programs or whatever it may be. The point is, whatever the club is doing IT IS NOT WORKING given our disgraceful track record of our development of our draft picks.

The blame should not be directed as much to the recruiters or even the players themselves, but our poor Development program which has yielded such pathetic results. I am almost certain that had we picked up Roughhead and Franklin in the "super draft" they would have inevitably turned out to be COMPLETE DUDS for the simple reason that we are completely clueless in how to bring out the best in our players. It is unbelievable we can have guys in our list for a number of years who have shown absolutely NO IMPROVEMENT whatsoever (e.g. schulz, Tambling). Had another team with a good Development program been able to pick up Deledio and Tambling, there's a fair chance that Bling would be an All-Australian MF'er by now, and Lids would be compared alongside Judd as complete gun on-baller.

The point I am trying to make is, that our recruiters aren't "necessarily" making poor choices, . . . we simply do not know how to get the most out of our players through internal development. It really doesn't matter WHO we draft if we do not have the development program and culture to turn our "young-guns" into "stars", and "potentials" into "good footballers". Rather than point the finger at our recruitment staff, maybe we should be looking at a major clean-out elsewhere.

If you keep feeding new recruits a copy of the Tigerland History Book, followed by a tour through the Punt Rd Musuem; Lunch with Tommy Hafey and then a video of the 1980, 74, 73, 69, & 67 GF's, followed by jumper presentations where the previous Tiger greats tell RFC.com.au just how much this young player reminds me when I first got to the club....well, your destined to be successful.

 

[TigerFurious]

I think Rance has shown enough in his first few games to show he will be a regular in our backline. Sure he coughs it up a bit and his foot skills have much to be desired sometimes, but he more than makes up for it with his 1% and putting his big body on the line.

And that right there, sums up what is wrong with Richmond's recruiting.

Rance may tackle, chase, harass, run in straight lines and do all the other little things that give supporters a warm fuzzy feeling inside but as it stands right now, his kicking is not even close adequate.

No amount of player development is going to help until the club start recruiting players with the necessary skills to begin with.