Round 1

[King of the Jungle]

It's round 1 people & yes we played a shocker but still plenty of time to improve. I also don't think that anyone thought we were going to be world beaters all I'm hoping for this season is see improvement out of our kids. We hit a side on the weekend that have been flying & only missing one player in their best 22 Kouta to our 3 to 6 depending on how you rate the guys missing Simmonds Brown Coughlan Knobal Kingsley Hall Thursfield.

 

[ToraToraTora]

We overreact after a bad kick. us.

 

[Punxsutawney Phil]

Unfortunately, its looking eerily familiar to previous seasons. Do they use footballs at all during pre-season training? What on earth have they been doing for the past 6 months?

 

[Disco08]

Can we make a separate board for Chicken Littles already?

 

[CarnTheTiges]

We did it in 2005 after being smacked by Geelong and last year after a flogging from the Dogs. Both of those seasons worked out relatively well. The worrying thing and reasons for genuine concern are the fact that the same mistakes continue to be made with skill and poor decision making. There's also the tendency to revert to the high possession game to preserve a lead whenever put under pressure.

 

[Goodwin 24]

Yes ! I was absolutely fuming after the game and yesterday...starting to settle down now, I know it will be a difficult task but we need to find a way to win on Saturday....last time on the G v Syd we won by 1 point (after being about 8 goals up!)

We need to have a desperation to win every game, we cannot be satisfied with respectable losses, this is when a losers culture sets in (it's been around us too long). I thought TW had changed this, but maybe nothing has changed....look at Collingwood, they don't have a great list but they are talking top 4. They demand success, we should too.

 

[tigers80]

no

 

[geoffryprettyboy]

Time to analyse it again, it's playing on Fox.

 

[Tigerfan]

Unfortunately, its looking eerily familiar to previous seasons. Do they use footballs at all during pre-season training? What on earth have they been doing for the past 6 months?

Actually Phil, we were pretty good for 2 and a half quarters suggesting that we did indeed use footies at some stage over pre season.

The cause for the loss had to be match fitness. We can get that back.

 

[Brettstigers]

Unfortunately, its looking eerily familiar to previous seasons. Do they use footballs at all during pre-season training? What on earth have they been doing for the past 6 months?

For starters I love the joke - very much a groundhog day fan.

Do you remember when we last came third. In that year both us and Carlton were in the finals and the two teams had some very close games. The next season Richmond played Carlton early, not sure if it was the first round and again a very close game. What was so sad is that while both sides were still close in skills/quality the rest of the comp had moved on. Both teams finished in the bottom four. Each year the first few rounds tests two things:
1) Relative to the other sides have you gone up, down or stayed the same
2) What is your sides fitness levels - are you starting very hard or not

IMO our only saving grace was that Carlton due to their NAB cup games were much more match fit than us. We shouldn't of been leading but we were till we ran out of puff. Given more equal levels of fitness I suspect the game would have been like last season - very close. So where does that place us given Carlton came 16th last year. Well not in the top eight I am afraid but I think Carlton have really come on but not enough to make the eight.

Given we really don't have anyone forcing their way into our side (other than the two obvious players in Simmo and eventually Brown) I think we have gone backwards from last year, not much but a bit. Also last year a lot of our good players had ripper years, if that doesn't happen again then we are really for it.

 

[Punxsutawney Phil]

Have probably been a bit harsh. However, as most supporters do, you get your hopes up pre season, but they were shattered on Sunday losing the way we did.

Realistically, we are not a top 8 side, and I belive that our position on the ladder may have flattered a little. However, I will be disappointed if we tread water while other sides like Port, Brisbane, Essendon, Carlton etc make progress.

 

[TIGEREXTRA]

If you cant get yourself up after 6 months off and playing in front of 60k fans against your biggest rival then you have issues imo!

You would be jumping out of your skin wouldn't you?

 

[Punxsutawney Phil]

You would be jumping out of your skin, and thats the most disappointing aspect of Sunday, the way they appeared to meekly give the game away when they had it in the bag. However, it isn't a new phenomenon at Punt Road- they regularly give the impression they aren't giving 100%.

However, when you take an honest look at our list, it doesn't stack up all that well with most clubs- one genuine star (who snapped his leg), a few foot soldiers and the rest problably wouldn't get a game at most other clubs. Having said that, we played the side that finished 16th last year, so would have expected a better performance that what we served up.

 

[AstuteTiger]

Richo snapped his leg?

Thats not nice Disco...

 

[itsintheblood]

Time to analyse it again, it's playing on Fox.

I'll give it a miss thanks champ.