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PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
I'm raising this issue because I feel that for sake of any future success we need to address this problem.
I have noticed for quite some time that our senior players (a couple in particular) have a bad habit of winning the ball but then just bombing and hoping for a good outcome. I haven't seen any improvement over the last few years and I fear that it's getting worse and becoming a non fixable problem with our senior players. The flow on effect will have consequences for our younger players who are learning from our senior group.
As we all know todays football very is complexed and scientific. Coaches play extra players behind the ball who then explode with pace out of defense after a turnover. Defenders double and triple team star players like Riewoldt, RICHO, and J Brown to prevent their impact. In fact unless you can get a one out contest it's getting harder for a forward to win a contested mark in the forward line. I quite often wonder how good Richo could be with half decent delivery.
With this in mind I question the coaching staff for allowing some of our senior players to waste forward entries by just bombing away. Richo is a great player but for god sake he can't beat 3 players jumping over the top of him. This comming year we will have some good marking players up forward in Richo, Polak, Pattison, Hughes, Riewoldt etc. However it can not be used as an excuse to bomb for the best. Bombing long should only happen when there are absolutely no options or when severely under pressure or in wet weather conditions. I don't believe our players bomb long for those reasons.
2 players in particular Raines and Tuck need to be assessed over this issue. I want to clear the air and say that I genuinely like both players. Both players are hard at it and win their fair share of the ball and I repect them for that. However, they waste up to 70% of their forward fifty deliveries imho. Stats may say otherwise but I will argue that if you watch both players closely you will soon agree that they have a problem. Stats don't often list kicks to a contested marking contest as ineffective and Richo at times gets to contests that he shouldn't. We as a club can't afford to carry 2 of these types of players while playing this modern day football. It must frustrate Richo to watch opposition forwards get clean lace out delivery while Richo down the other end has to fight off 2 opponents while he waits half a minute for the ball to land after Tucky or Raines has sent it inside fifty.
What concerns me the most is that these two players do it all the time with no pressure, plenty of options and no real need other then bad habit to do it. Last Friday I attended the intra club game with many others looking for signs of improvement. There were plenty of young players to get excited about but all that I saw from Tuck and Raines was Ground Hog Day put Richo in hospital deliveries. I know that Friday was just a practice match but when I look at all the tapes from last year I have never seen either of them dragged for it! It's a real long term problem.
We need to fix this problem Terry!
How do we fix the problem??
1) Replace them with kids who have better foot skills and wait for them to become senior standard.
2) Put extra emphasis on eradicating these bad habits including dragging them for extended periods, dropping them back to Coburg and punishing them until they learn.
3) Put some processes in place at training to prevent these habits and punish them and the whole team when they do it at training.
I know there will be people out there that wont agree with this opinion and will say that the club is already doing what they can to fix these problems. I argue that the club and coaches aren't doing enough and are completely negligent at times over these small but important issues. I remember how long it took the club to realize how often Richo runs too close to the man on the mark and sprays his shots on goal. They still don't spend enough time on it. I have pointed it out on this forum for years and Terry only realized last year that it was a genuine problem.
Time will tell but I needed to raise the issue in hope that it raises awareness of the problem. I really hope both players can work hard on rectifying the problem the sake of the team and for the sake of their own careers! As for the coaches at the club FOR GOD SAKE HAVE A LOOK AT IT!
Cracker
I have noticed for quite some time that our senior players (a couple in particular) have a bad habit of winning the ball but then just bombing and hoping for a good outcome. I haven't seen any improvement over the last few years and I fear that it's getting worse and becoming a non fixable problem with our senior players. The flow on effect will have consequences for our younger players who are learning from our senior group.
As we all know todays football very is complexed and scientific. Coaches play extra players behind the ball who then explode with pace out of defense after a turnover. Defenders double and triple team star players like Riewoldt, RICHO, and J Brown to prevent their impact. In fact unless you can get a one out contest it's getting harder for a forward to win a contested mark in the forward line. I quite often wonder how good Richo could be with half decent delivery.
With this in mind I question the coaching staff for allowing some of our senior players to waste forward entries by just bombing away. Richo is a great player but for god sake he can't beat 3 players jumping over the top of him. This comming year we will have some good marking players up forward in Richo, Polak, Pattison, Hughes, Riewoldt etc. However it can not be used as an excuse to bomb for the best. Bombing long should only happen when there are absolutely no options or when severely under pressure or in wet weather conditions. I don't believe our players bomb long for those reasons.
2 players in particular Raines and Tuck need to be assessed over this issue. I want to clear the air and say that I genuinely like both players. Both players are hard at it and win their fair share of the ball and I repect them for that. However, they waste up to 70% of their forward fifty deliveries imho. Stats may say otherwise but I will argue that if you watch both players closely you will soon agree that they have a problem. Stats don't often list kicks to a contested marking contest as ineffective and Richo at times gets to contests that he shouldn't. We as a club can't afford to carry 2 of these types of players while playing this modern day football. It must frustrate Richo to watch opposition forwards get clean lace out delivery while Richo down the other end has to fight off 2 opponents while he waits half a minute for the ball to land after Tucky or Raines has sent it inside fifty.
What concerns me the most is that these two players do it all the time with no pressure, plenty of options and no real need other then bad habit to do it. Last Friday I attended the intra club game with many others looking for signs of improvement. There were plenty of young players to get excited about but all that I saw from Tuck and Raines was Ground Hog Day put Richo in hospital deliveries. I know that Friday was just a practice match but when I look at all the tapes from last year I have never seen either of them dragged for it! It's a real long term problem.
We need to fix this problem Terry!
How do we fix the problem??
1) Replace them with kids who have better foot skills and wait for them to become senior standard.
2) Put extra emphasis on eradicating these bad habits including dragging them for extended periods, dropping them back to Coburg and punishing them until they learn.
3) Put some processes in place at training to prevent these habits and punish them and the whole team when they do it at training.
I know there will be people out there that wont agree with this opinion and will say that the club is already doing what they can to fix these problems. I argue that the club and coaches aren't doing enough and are completely negligent at times over these small but important issues. I remember how long it took the club to realize how often Richo runs too close to the man on the mark and sprays his shots on goal. They still don't spend enough time on it. I have pointed it out on this forum for years and Terry only realized last year that it was a genuine problem.
Time will tell but I needed to raise the issue in hope that it raises awareness of the problem. I really hope both players can work hard on rectifying the problem the sake of the team and for the sake of their own careers! As for the coaches at the club FOR GOD SAKE HAVE A LOOK AT IT!
Cracker