Status of the RFC as at Pre-Season 2006 - What's your view?

[blx]

If all preseason games were to be tallied as per home and away we are sitting 3rd on the ladder with 2 from 1 behind adeliade and geelong. as this table from Y&B shows.

01. Adelaide 3 - 0 - 327 - 157 - 208.2
02. Geelong 3 - 0 - 285 - 210 - 135.7
03. Richmond 2 - 1 - 338 - 230 - 146.9
04. Essendon 2 - 1 - 263 - 195 - 134.8
05. Port Adelaide 2 - 1 - 307 - 235 - 130.6
06. Fremantle 2 - 1 - 307 - 250 - 122.8
07. Collingwood 2 - 1 - 250 - 260 - 96.1
08. Melbourne 2 - 1 - 203 - 273 - 74.3
09. Kangaroos 1 - 2 - 215 - 215 - 100.0
10. Hawthorn 1 - 2 - 215 - 255 - 84.3
11. Brisbane 1 - 2 - 220 - 273 - 80.5
12. Western Bulldogs 1 - 2 - 251 - 325 - 77.2
13. West Coast 1 - 2 - 210 - 290 - 72.4
14. Carlton 1 - 2 - 196 - 297 - 65.9
15. St Kilda 0 - 3 - 231 - 250 - 92.4
16. Sydney 0 - 3 - 139 - 242 - 57.4

now i know its only pre-season so its not to taken too seriously but we have a very healthy percentage.

also of note from last weekends game in sunny queensland is that we had less goal kickers than shepp, now could this attributed to richo playing? i doubt it, but at least when he isnt playing its nice to know that we can somehow find other/more variations to goal which is a good sign if anything.

The juniors are the main beneficiaries of the pre-season games against other clubs whereas the seniors I would think just go through the motions and look only to prepare for round 1 which is one of the main reasons i dont look into the preseason shamoozles too seriously.

I really do hope we take a good side up to mildura and treat it like a full dress rehersal. Then theres a whole week off and then into the real stuff.

Our preseason has been great considering we only just lost to the hawkers in the first game. It shows we have competitive in every match we've played and thats exactly what you would want your team to be win or lose, just be competitive. If we can continue that throughout the regular season it would go a long way into ridding alot of the evil spirits  > around the club and will stand us in good stead for the future.

i've mentioned this before but i think our ideal season would be to finish lowly but with only credible loses and no floggings but then again if we make the grade come sptember i'd love that too but in all reality even though our depth is improving, we still have a ways to go before we're in the hunt.

 

[TOT70]

Don't read anything into practice games. They are used by coaches to learn about their team.

Players are played out of position, others are rested, some only play a small part of the game etc.

The coaches are also playing games with each other. TW was recently quoted as saying this about our game against the Bulldogs. Neither wanted to other to see team structures etc.

Many teams that are backing themselves to play a serious role in September treat everything before round 6 as a practice game. That explains why we have fallen off the pace late in the last few seasons. Our lack of depth really starts to hurt when the big boys come out to play. We are trying to play everyone from day one, clubs like Adelaide have real depth. They are not going to stress if Ricciuto misses the pre-season, or even the first four weeks of the season. It gives them an opportunity to get some games into a kid.

I don't think this is a luxury that we can afford yet. In a year or two, maybe, but not yet.

As it pans out, when the kids start to tire, we might have Chaffey returning from injury. Not quite Ricciuto, is it?

 

[Tango]

agreed TOT, but nobody and i mean NOBODY wants to be beaten by 70 odd points by anyone at anytime time of the year regardless of who they have or dont have on the field.......... ???

 

[Ian4]

We will finish in bottom 4 or 5 for mine, tougher draw, and still many mediocre one dimensional one sided footballers, as well as a few very dumb footballers in regard to decision making that must be gotten rid of in some cases we have players that fit both of these categories.

pretty much agree with that, also i'm sticking to my prediction of 10 wins i made prior to xmas, most of them coming in the 2nd half of the year, which would mean we'll finish between 10-12th

 

[Tubytiger]

Don't read anything into practice games.  They are used by coaches to learn about their team. 

Players are played out of position, others are rested, some only play a small part of the game etc.

The coaches are also playing games with each other.  TW was recently quoted as saying this about our game against the Bulldogs.  Neither wanted to other to see team structures etc.

Many teams that are backing themselves to play a serious role in September treat everything before round 6 as a practice game.  That explains why we have fallen off the pace late in the last few seasons. Our lack of depth really starts to hurt when the big boys come out to play.  We are trying to play everyone from day one, clubs like Adelaide have real depth.  They are not going to stress if Ricciuto misses the pre-season, or even the first four weeks of the season.  It gives them an opportunity to get some games into a kid. 

I don't think this is a luxury that we can afford yet.  In a year or two, maybe, but not yet.

As it pans out, when the kids start to tire, we might have Chaffey returning from injury.  Not quite Ricciuto, is it?

Everything before round six as a practice game..... :hihi :hihi C'mon you have got to be kidding me.

 

[tigersnake]

Bottom 4 is ridiculous. I consider myself an optomist, but people will know that in 2003-4 I was mad as buggery with the proportion of bums on our list and the directionless way we were going. I remember one week in particlar when we got flogged by North in a pathetic effort DF made no bloody changes. PRE lit up like a christmas tree with pissed off faithfull.

Since then TW and co have sacked what? 20 odd players in 2 years, well over half the list. I reckon that our percentage of promising draftees is very high, whereas it used to be dismall. I'm confident that depending on the usual variables, a finish of 10-7.

 

[blx]

Bottom 4 is ridiculous. I consider myself an optomist

thats all good and well TS but what if we get to a point where we are mathematically out of the finals? do we play young kids and get better dibs in the draft or do we try to finish 9th again?