sensational six | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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sensational six

lamb22

lamb22

Tiger Legend
Jan 29, 2005
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We are now getting into the testing time for wallace's midfield led restructure.

I am on the mids win matches bandwagon with prime examples being the fab four at Brisbane Voss, Black, Lappin, Akermanis and the three amigos at West Coast Judd, Kerr and Cousins. Adelaide at their best also boasted Macleod, Goodwin, Ricciuto, Bickley, Edwards and Co (including a small role for out Johno). Geelong's strength is built on A,B,C and Ling

Tiges have been woeful for years because because not enough A grade mids and not enough skill, athleticism and smarts around the ground.

Early 2000's Cogs our only A grader, 2006 onwards Foley emerges as potential A grader, 2008 Deledio demostrates he has the goods to be an A grade midfielder, 2008, Cotchin emerges as a potential superstar mid. Second half of 2008 Tuck takes his game to a higher level (almost A grade mid). Post season old A grader Cousins joins Richmond.

Lots of ifs and buts........ but if Cogs and Cousins dust of the cobwebs and stay healthy and Tuck continues on his development path we have six potential A grade mids.

Lots to be excited about next year but a fit in form starting rotation of Deledio, Tuck, Foley with support from Cousins, Cotchin and Coughlan has got to be competitive with any team going around.

And despite the knocks on list development there is conga line of young mids knocking on the door : Connors, Edwards, White, Collins, Tambling, Polo, Thompson and Hislop.

And I reckon Jackson, Raines and King also fancy their chances as midfeild options.

If you build it (midfield) it will come.......................................
 
The backline is top 4 standard IMO, save for a small back.

If the midfield gets a bit of luck we will have easily one of the best in the comp + one of the best backlines.

Our forwardline will be force-fed goals... and we haven't even mentioned Richo yet.
 
benny_furs said:
The backline is top 4 standard IMO, save for a small back.

If the midfield gets a bit of luck we will have easily one of the best in the comp + one of the best backlines.

Our forwardline will be force-fed goals... and we haven't even mentioned Richo yet.
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It's still a bit early for mine to be proclaiming the Back half as one of the best backlines. Even the word potential is a bit early. There were certainlt glimmers of hope. Thursfield struggled a bit towards the end of 2008, but with a break, and a pre-season, I'd be hopeful of a return to some of his best form. Kel Moore, does scream potential, but again perhaps a bit early even for that. I hope he can be as dominant in 2009 as he was in the back half of 2008. McGuane is another who you shoud be able attach the word potential to, but he just seems to be short of that too. Another season of the occasional outstanding game, mixed with mostly nsilid performances and he's up there - but he still seems a bit iffy????

Schulz just started to find his feet down back, but it was only for a few games. He does that to you you knew - just as Tooheys! He's a real football tease. He's gone up and down more times than a yoyo in an old fashioned Coke promotion.

King, he had a few good games, nearly entered the potential area, but got injured, got coy, got lost.

Newman - yeah, he's gone well passed potential, but an A-grader? He's still thereabouts - a bit like Torney used to be.

Nah, our backline is still very much work in progress. It's screaming for a Rance type to mature and dominate. Moore could do that still. At best we could be a C-grade back-line at the moment - still unproven, shown some glimmers, but wouldn;t be surprised to see it get rolled easily by an A-Grade or B-Grade attack.

I know, it more than held it's own against St Kilda and Hawthorn. Let's see if it can do it again - then the potential can be said to be their.

Agree about the Midfield - has definately moved in the potentially A-Grade area. I'm more excited at the inclusion of Hislop than Cousins to be honest, assuming bothe have got their heads focussed. Cousins offers a season or two - Hislop offers a career. We've stolen this kid!
 
pharace said:
It's still a bit early for mine to be proclaiming the Back half as one of the best backlines. Even the word potential is a bit early. There were certainlt glimmers of hope. Thursfield struggled a bit towards the end of 2008, but with a break, and a pre-season, I'd be hopeful of a return to some of his best form. Kel Moore, does scream potential, but again perhaps a bit early even for that. I hope he can be as dominant in 2009 as he was in the back half of 2008. McGuane is another who you shoud be able attach the word potential to, but he just seems to be short of that too. Another season of the occasional outstanding game, mixed with mostly nsilid performances and he's up there - but he still seems a bit iffy????

Schulz just started to find his feet down back, but it was only for a few games. He does that to you you knew - just as Tooheys! He's a real football tease. He's gone up and down more times than a yoyo in an old fashioned Coke promotion.

King, he had a few good games, nearly entered the potential area, but got injured, got coy, got lost.

Newman - yeah, he's gone well passed potential, but an A-grader? He's still thereabouts - a bit like Torney used to be.

Nah, our backline is still very much work in progress. It's screaming for a Rance type to mature and dominate. Moore could do that still. At best we could be a C-grade back-line at the moment - still unproven, shown some glimmers, but wouldn;t be surprised to see it get rolled easily by an A-Grade or B-Grade attack.

I know, it more than held it's own against St Kilda and Hawthorn. Let's see if it can do it again - then the potential can be said to be their.

Agree about the Midfield - has definately moved in the potentially A-Grade area. I'm more excited at the inclusion of Hislop than Cousins to be honest, assuming bothe have got their heads focussed. Cousins offers a season or two - Hislop offers a career. We've stolen this kid!
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Pharace, love your posts but the above is an example of marking our boys too hard. Where are all the A grade or B grade backlines better than ours. Cats probably the benchmark but after that sheeeez. Saints have a couple of decent talls...Bullies OK, Crows OK then............... scratches head.

Better to look at results - our talls collared and controlled most of the big guns - Fev, Buddy, Lloyd, copule of good smalls got away from us, so that's where we might improve.

I'm happy with our lot there. And we have some develping depth in Rance and Post and as many running backs as you can shake a stick at including Connors, Tambling , Polo.

Glad you're on board with the mid's wagon.
 
If you were to simply look at points conceded i think we finished about 12th from memory!

Having said that, there are teams that have the type of game plan that is so negative that nobody - not them nor the opposition can score heavily, so pointsagainst probably isn't a fair indicator anyway.

I wouldn't rate our defense in the top 4, but often midfield pressure will make or break a defense so hopefully this season coming we might be able to rate top 8. With good supply to our attack, a top 8 ranking would see us win a lot more than we lose, maybe enough to creep inside the top 4 or 5 positions - but that's if our defense can rate top 8. I'm quietly confident!
 
Whath the backline lacks is a coupld of tall quick and linkg kicking half backs. Refer to the Hawks with Birchall and YOung. Between Thrusfield, Moore and McGuane they are not really offensive type of backman
 
thomas the tiger said:
Whath the backline lacks is a coupld of tall quick and linkg kicking half backs. Refer to the Hawks with Birchall and YOung. Between Thrusfield, Moore and McGuane they are not really offensive type of backman
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This is where Danny Meyer might embarrass us, but hey you can't keep them all on the list!

If it was up to me to delist players for list management, we'd still have Hungry on the half forward flank, Sheeds in defense, Disco at full forward and Whale Roberts anywhere to provide comedy relief!
 
The introduction of Greg Dear in 1994 had a dramatic effect on the RFC and the likes of Knights, Campbell, Bond, Daffy, Naish and Broderick;
If the Tigers had a back-up (ready to go ruckman) in 2009, I would say our "sensational six" could well enjoy a successful season;
I'm still waiting for successful back to back drafts that will introduce a batch of footballers who may combine to win a premiership - That's what I would call sensational.
 
I,ve said it a million times and history has shown it.If you have a "A" grade midfield with depth your 2/3rds of the way to winning a flag[or 2].Mids make fwds look good while Mids make defenders job much easier.
 
There's plenty of 'if's" but I'm prepared to say IF Coughlan can regain his spot on a regular basis we will be able to match it with the best midfields in the AFL in 2009. That's recognising our current ruck stocks too.

What Cogs used to do brilliantly was shut down the best in-and-under player from the opposition. If he can still do this then we now have the other players to take advantage of most situations, even if the tapouts go against us.
 
Hayfever said:
There's plenty of 'if's" but I'm prepared to say IF Coughlan can regain his spot on a regular basis we will be able to match it with the best midfields in the AFL in 2009. That's recognising our current ruck stocks too.

What Cogs used to do brilliantly was shut down the best in-and-under player from the opposition. If he can still do this then we now have the other players to take advantage of most situations, even if the tapouts go against us.
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If Coughlan does recover, I would not expect him to play for RFC until at least round 6.

He has been out for far too long to drop him in the senior, he has to rediscover his ability to read the play and confidence to back his instincts.
 
Ghost, Cogs has already played almost half a sesaon at Coburg and got progressively better.

As the season went on, he started to display that ability to read the play a kick off the ball and make those aerial interceptions he was so good at, which meant he was starting to cover the ground better.

Right from the start he could find the pill and his hands and decision making are still first rate.

In the final he was able to snap a couple of good goals and showed surprising agility.

What he lacked and I didn't know if it was just an unwillingness to push himself at Coburg level or something more significant was a lack of defensive intensity at the contest or any power or dynamism in traffic. A lot of his possessions therefore were when he was pretty much stationary and in very crowded circumstances. He looked like he let players pass him or beat him to the ball even though the old Cogs would have pressured or even won the ball.

The coaching panel have said that is what they are looking to return and have suggested the signs are there that that is in fact happening.

Fingers crossed.
 
Cogs was ready for a few senior games at the end of 2008 but with finals still a chance Terry just thought why risk it.

There is no doubt Coughlan will play Round 1.

If he doesn't play 5 of the first 5 games of the season (injury permitting) he will be delisted.
 
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