Hawthorn has incredible buy in from its leadership group. When you hear Lewis, Roughead, Mitchell, Hodge, Smith and Mitchell speak, they even sound like Clarkson. They set the tone early in every game. Everybody follows.
We have some buy in but it is nowhere near enough. Rance sets the tone, Cotchin does too, providing he is not frustrated by close attention, Jack generally leads the forward line well but he is prone to looking for frees and back chatting the umpires. Nonetheless, they are all whole-hearted leaders. Of the rest, Grimes and Astbury try to emulate Rance and a couple of the young kids have added enthusiasm. That is about it.
We have way too many who play for themselves. Instead of shepherding, they peel off for the hand ball. Instead of running to present another option, they hang back. They don't waste their energy on runs that are likely to go unrewarded. Under pressure, they look for safe options, not the high risk options that might slice up the defence or lead to an embarrassing mistake.
Mind you, It is not a good idea to make an embarrassing mistake when you play for Richmond, as Houli found out with his ill-advised last kick in against Freo last year. We tend to be an unforgiving lot.
Do players from other clubs get as much media and fan attention as Richmond and Collingwood players do? It is an extra barrier for them to overcome.
On field leadership is still our Achilles heel.
