J
jake_the_lad
Guest
It was very interesting to watch the game today. I don't think Sydney have a great list. I would put them in the same bracket as us and Hawthorn. What makes them good is that they play for each other, and have a coach who they respect greatly.
Watching Barry Hall today showed me exactly what we are missing most at Tigerland. We often talk about the Kellaways and Coughlan and those sorts and how tough they are. And they are tough, they back into packs and throw themselves onto the bottom of packs headfirst. It is a different sort of toughness we need. There is no emotion stronger than fear. The Port defenders today would vouch for that. Backing into packs gives your teammates a lift, but what the likes of Archer and Hall do strikes fear into the opposition. I wondered what it felt like for the smaller forwards in the Sydney team. Beside you stands a brute of a man who is likely to knock over anything that stands in his, or indeed your path, to help his team and protect the smaller men. Every time that the Swans were tested today Hall came charging down from FF took a mark and booted truly. No man in teal dared stand in his way.
Who in the current Richmond side has any sort of physical presence during a game?
When was the last time a Richmond player laid a bonecrunching hip and shoulder?
When you read stories of the Richmond of old, of Jack Dyer and 'Mopsy' Fraser and Max Oppy, about how we won premierships even though we weren't as skillful as some of the other teams going around (roar34?), it is very depressing. About time we did something about it.
The problem is
i) Our players seem less muscular than our opponents, and this alone can give them a mental edge.
ii) We don't have many players with a lot of 'mongrel' in them, and those that do - eg. Nicholls and Fleming, are hacks. Tough, skillful players are a rare commodity but every good team has 'em. Look and the kangaroos of the late 90's (archer, King, Carey etc), the Bombers of 200 at their peak (Johnsons, Solomon, Hardwick) and the current Lions team (Voss, Pike).
I would like to see someone like Rodan, who is a big strong boy, to be told to be more aggressive.
On the subject of Sydney, I see this as the classic example of the flaws of the draft. They might make the grand final, but I cannot see them winning it. They are a good side working hard and playing hard. They should be rewarded. It is the teams with similar lists but don't raise a whimper, like Hawthorn and us to a degree that are rewarded by this system.
Why not give out the first round of draft picks in reverse order and the second round in the opposite direction. i.e. the bottom team gets picks 1 and 32, and the top team gets picks 16 and 17. It should be even IMO. It is dissapointing to see successful teams getting systematically dismantled by the draft rules.
I would like to know the legalities of this draft system. How can a player come of contract and i) be forced to go to a particular club, or ii) his club of choice are forced to recompense his old club, to which he no longer has any legal obligation.
I'm don't know the first thing about contract or corporate law, but it seems to be a restriction of trade and deny freedom of movement. There is a precedent in soccer with the Bosman ruling, it all depends on whether we have anything like the workers right outlined in the treaty of Rome. What about the fact that player A can play for team X, but player B cannot, all because player A's old man played for them Is that discrimination? The sooner someone challenges this crooked system the better IMO.
Watching Barry Hall today showed me exactly what we are missing most at Tigerland. We often talk about the Kellaways and Coughlan and those sorts and how tough they are. And they are tough, they back into packs and throw themselves onto the bottom of packs headfirst. It is a different sort of toughness we need. There is no emotion stronger than fear. The Port defenders today would vouch for that. Backing into packs gives your teammates a lift, but what the likes of Archer and Hall do strikes fear into the opposition. I wondered what it felt like for the smaller forwards in the Sydney team. Beside you stands a brute of a man who is likely to knock over anything that stands in his, or indeed your path, to help his team and protect the smaller men. Every time that the Swans were tested today Hall came charging down from FF took a mark and booted truly. No man in teal dared stand in his way.
Who in the current Richmond side has any sort of physical presence during a game?
When was the last time a Richmond player laid a bonecrunching hip and shoulder?
When you read stories of the Richmond of old, of Jack Dyer and 'Mopsy' Fraser and Max Oppy, about how we won premierships even though we weren't as skillful as some of the other teams going around (roar34?), it is very depressing. About time we did something about it.
The problem is
i) Our players seem less muscular than our opponents, and this alone can give them a mental edge.
ii) We don't have many players with a lot of 'mongrel' in them, and those that do - eg. Nicholls and Fleming, are hacks. Tough, skillful players are a rare commodity but every good team has 'em. Look and the kangaroos of the late 90's (archer, King, Carey etc), the Bombers of 200 at their peak (Johnsons, Solomon, Hardwick) and the current Lions team (Voss, Pike).
I would like to see someone like Rodan, who is a big strong boy, to be told to be more aggressive.
On the subject of Sydney, I see this as the classic example of the flaws of the draft. They might make the grand final, but I cannot see them winning it. They are a good side working hard and playing hard. They should be rewarded. It is the teams with similar lists but don't raise a whimper, like Hawthorn and us to a degree that are rewarded by this system.
Why not give out the first round of draft picks in reverse order and the second round in the opposite direction. i.e. the bottom team gets picks 1 and 32, and the top team gets picks 16 and 17. It should be even IMO. It is dissapointing to see successful teams getting systematically dismantled by the draft rules.
I would like to know the legalities of this draft system. How can a player come of contract and i) be forced to go to a particular club, or ii) his club of choice are forced to recompense his old club, to which he no longer has any legal obligation.
I'm don't know the first thing about contract or corporate law, but it seems to be a restriction of trade and deny freedom of movement. There is a precedent in soccer with the Bosman ruling, it all depends on whether we have anything like the workers right outlined in the treaty of Rome. What about the fact that player A can play for team X, but player B cannot, all because player A's old man played for them Is that discrimination? The sooner someone challenges this crooked system the better IMO.
