-
IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
God, what a bloody mess.
THE COACH.
First up, sacking the coach 4 games in is not an option. As much as a lot of us want blood and the coach is seen as the one that provides that blood, its not going to do anything right now. Simple solution for the Board, announce that they will not extend Terry's contract at the end of this season and commence the search for a new coach. If Terry does not want to coach out the season, then its either Sheeds or one of the assistance coaches Wayne Campbell or David King.
So that fixes the coaching issue.
NOW FOR THE BIG ONE. THE PLAYERS.
Personally I would love to DELIST a player here and now, but apparently you can't do that in AFL, the players are a protected species almost as bad as the umpires.
So, starting today, all the playing group when attending training, wear white from top to bottom, no Richmond Training Team colours. THEY HAVE TO EARN THE RIGHT to wear those Training Team colours by completing a set of drills given to them as individuals and as a team by the coaching staff several times over. ONLY THEN do they get to wear the Training Team colours.
Shake the players out of their collective comfit zones. Drop some big names NOT JUST FOR ONE GAME BUT HOW ABOUT AT LEAST TWO AND EVEN THREE GAMES. The season is shot, now its time to really toughen up on the players and find out who has it in them and wants to play for Richmond or who has not got it them and is only there for the money.
So for a start I'd drop Troy Simmonds, Nathan Brown, Brett Delidio, Shane Tuck, Matthew White, Jordie McMahon. Both Nathan Foley and Joel Bowden should be told to get their acts together or they will be back in the seconds as well.
Graham, Vickery, Post, Thursfield, Pattison (if fit), hopefully Raines and a couple of other rookies can come in.
Leave Jay *smile* out of it, one game out doesn't mean anything and the players know it only too well, leaving a player out for one game shows the club is panicking and has little faith in the remaining playing list. Wrong approach now is the time for the club to use the whole list and see who has got it and who hasn't attitude
wise.
If that means replacements come in with nothing behind too damn bad. Its time the younger players were given an opportunity, whilst those with the supposed big names and big pay packets were told to get their collective acts together, so you can pack your bags at years end. As far as I'm concerned Delidio can be traded if he doesn't get his act together, he's had years to develop into a so called Grade A player and he hasn't even come close. Simmond's and Brown should be told point blank get it together or its goodbye end 2009.
Schedule additional training sessions for defensive work, disposal of the ball and decision making under pressure. Do a couple of sessions unannounced, at 10pm or 5am, fine any player that is late attending sessions, even its by 1 minute. Any player who chit chats etc, fine them too, make them do 100 push ups, better yet the whole playing group drop and do 100 push up's. Doing 100 push ups, 100 sit up's, 100 crunch's etc a few extra times actually does hurt and it won't belong before the players shut up and focus their collective concentration on what the coaching staff are telling them to do. Remember the players wear all over white until the coaching staff think that they have got what it takes to wear just the Training Colours, not the Richmond Game Jumper.
The above is done for the rest of this season, each week the players start to wear white then they graduate, if they can't do that properly then they are history. If that means the players feel embarrassed and have to call Benny Gale to complain, too damn bad they are paid to play and they are damn well paid to win, Benny Gale should be told to mind his own business he's not part of the Richmond Football Club any longer.
So hopefully the above will put some spine and a bit of emotional anger into the players. After all its the players on the field that are ULTIMATELY responsible for whether they win or lose, the coach can only do so much.
THE CLUB.
The culture at Richmond appears to be one of SECOND BEST "AT BEST" BOTTOM EVERY OTHER TIME, OR JUST DO 10 MINUTES OF GOOD PLAY, THAT'S OKAY BY ME ME ME ME ME, be they a player, a coach, staff or board member.
Time to shake that up. That means the Richmond Board of Management must take a collective stand. The Club President should now be issuing a directive that ONLY HE deals with the Media, any staff member or player, will either face the sack or heavy fine's/suspension for talking to the Media. In fact the Club President should ban any player from talking to the media for at least the next month, bad luck if the player is contracted to a media organisation, the players FIRST and ONLY PRIORITY is the Richmond Football Club and the idea of WINNING.
The culture must change from within. Drafting new young players won't help the culture because its the culture of any organisation that impacts on the person within. So the Club President and the Board, along with the Football Department and the Players MUST COLLECTIVELY sit down and sort this mess out. If that means some hard truths have to be aired, players ego's deflated, Board Members told some hard facts etc etc then so be it. Once that has been done, the Board should then sit down and work out how best to move forward, given that they effectively have a lame duck coach, a playing list that got talent but consistently refuses to use it and a culture that is cluttered up with ego's, backstabbing politics and a me me me attitude.
Only then will Richmond as a playing group and a club move forward. There are NO other alteratives here folks, its get the act together by doing the tough hard necessary yards, no short cuts, bring in solid discipline from top Club President thru to the bottom Boot Studder.
Players will get cut at the of this year that there is no doubt, its only a question of how many and right now you could safely say 10 plus should be gone but Gold Coast are coming, so RFC may have to work with a few that shouldn't by rights be there, which means they work their arses off for the priviledge of being part of this club going forward in 2010 and beyond.
THE COACH.
First up, sacking the coach 4 games in is not an option. As much as a lot of us want blood and the coach is seen as the one that provides that blood, its not going to do anything right now. Simple solution for the Board, announce that they will not extend Terry's contract at the end of this season and commence the search for a new coach. If Terry does not want to coach out the season, then its either Sheeds or one of the assistance coaches Wayne Campbell or David King.
So that fixes the coaching issue.
NOW FOR THE BIG ONE. THE PLAYERS.
Personally I would love to DELIST a player here and now, but apparently you can't do that in AFL, the players are a protected species almost as bad as the umpires.
So, starting today, all the playing group when attending training, wear white from top to bottom, no Richmond Training Team colours. THEY HAVE TO EARN THE RIGHT to wear those Training Team colours by completing a set of drills given to them as individuals and as a team by the coaching staff several times over. ONLY THEN do they get to wear the Training Team colours.
Shake the players out of their collective comfit zones. Drop some big names NOT JUST FOR ONE GAME BUT HOW ABOUT AT LEAST TWO AND EVEN THREE GAMES. The season is shot, now its time to really toughen up on the players and find out who has it in them and wants to play for Richmond or who has not got it them and is only there for the money.
So for a start I'd drop Troy Simmonds, Nathan Brown, Brett Delidio, Shane Tuck, Matthew White, Jordie McMahon. Both Nathan Foley and Joel Bowden should be told to get their acts together or they will be back in the seconds as well.
Graham, Vickery, Post, Thursfield, Pattison (if fit), hopefully Raines and a couple of other rookies can come in.
Leave Jay *smile* out of it, one game out doesn't mean anything and the players know it only too well, leaving a player out for one game shows the club is panicking and has little faith in the remaining playing list. Wrong approach now is the time for the club to use the whole list and see who has got it and who hasn't attitude
wise.
If that means replacements come in with nothing behind too damn bad. Its time the younger players were given an opportunity, whilst those with the supposed big names and big pay packets were told to get their collective acts together, so you can pack your bags at years end. As far as I'm concerned Delidio can be traded if he doesn't get his act together, he's had years to develop into a so called Grade A player and he hasn't even come close. Simmond's and Brown should be told point blank get it together or its goodbye end 2009.
Schedule additional training sessions for defensive work, disposal of the ball and decision making under pressure. Do a couple of sessions unannounced, at 10pm or 5am, fine any player that is late attending sessions, even its by 1 minute. Any player who chit chats etc, fine them too, make them do 100 push ups, better yet the whole playing group drop and do 100 push up's. Doing 100 push ups, 100 sit up's, 100 crunch's etc a few extra times actually does hurt and it won't belong before the players shut up and focus their collective concentration on what the coaching staff are telling them to do. Remember the players wear all over white until the coaching staff think that they have got what it takes to wear just the Training Colours, not the Richmond Game Jumper.
The above is done for the rest of this season, each week the players start to wear white then they graduate, if they can't do that properly then they are history. If that means the players feel embarrassed and have to call Benny Gale to complain, too damn bad they are paid to play and they are damn well paid to win, Benny Gale should be told to mind his own business he's not part of the Richmond Football Club any longer.
So hopefully the above will put some spine and a bit of emotional anger into the players. After all its the players on the field that are ULTIMATELY responsible for whether they win or lose, the coach can only do so much.
THE CLUB.
The culture at Richmond appears to be one of SECOND BEST "AT BEST" BOTTOM EVERY OTHER TIME, OR JUST DO 10 MINUTES OF GOOD PLAY, THAT'S OKAY BY ME ME ME ME ME, be they a player, a coach, staff or board member.
Time to shake that up. That means the Richmond Board of Management must take a collective stand. The Club President should now be issuing a directive that ONLY HE deals with the Media, any staff member or player, will either face the sack or heavy fine's/suspension for talking to the Media. In fact the Club President should ban any player from talking to the media for at least the next month, bad luck if the player is contracted to a media organisation, the players FIRST and ONLY PRIORITY is the Richmond Football Club and the idea of WINNING.
The culture must change from within. Drafting new young players won't help the culture because its the culture of any organisation that impacts on the person within. So the Club President and the Board, along with the Football Department and the Players MUST COLLECTIVELY sit down and sort this mess out. If that means some hard truths have to be aired, players ego's deflated, Board Members told some hard facts etc etc then so be it. Once that has been done, the Board should then sit down and work out how best to move forward, given that they effectively have a lame duck coach, a playing list that got talent but consistently refuses to use it and a culture that is cluttered up with ego's, backstabbing politics and a me me me attitude.
Only then will Richmond as a playing group and a club move forward. There are NO other alteratives here folks, its get the act together by doing the tough hard necessary yards, no short cuts, bring in solid discipline from top Club President thru to the bottom Boot Studder.
Players will get cut at the of this year that there is no doubt, its only a question of how many and right now you could safely say 10 plus should be gone but Gold Coast are coming, so RFC may have to work with a few that shouldn't by rights be there, which means they work their arses off for the priviledge of being part of this club going forward in 2010 and beyond.