One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on April 13, 2010, 01:22:08 AM
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Ben Cousins of no value as Tigers rebuild culture
* Malcolm Conn
* The Australian
* April 13, 2010
BY suspending four of its players, including Ben Cousins, for inappropriate behaviour, Richmond has regained the respect it is unlikely to earn on the football field this year.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to utter Cousins and respect in the same sentence.
The recovering drug addict, who was forced out of West Coast in disgrace three years ago, has again kicked in the teeth all those who continue to show faith in him.
Only last Friday new coach Damien Hardwick raved about the leadership qualities Cousins brings to the team as one of the few experienced players among a bunch of kids.
The following night Richmond was given a 55-point flogging by Sydney at the SCG, its third hiding in as many games this season.
And just a few hours later Cousins, the oldest and most decorated player in the club, was part of a group responsible for waking international triathletes in Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel at 3am.
This raises the question - if Richmond is attempting to build a new culture should Cousins really be part of it given his history of disruption? The negative publicity to date surrounding his presence at Richmond has been enormous and is clearly on-going.
By suspending an intoxicated Daniel Connors for eight weeks and Cousins, Dean Polo and Luke McGuane for one match each, Richmond has probably cost itself the ghost of a chance it had of beating reigning wooden-spooner Melbourne on Sunday.
But the sacrifice of attempting to scramble four points against the improving Demons is no sacrifice at all given what Hardwick and his new team of helpers are attempting to achieve.
Fifteenth last season, Richmond is planted on the bottom of the ladder with a percentage of less than 48 and is overwhelming favourite to win its third wooden spoon in seven years.
After the most successful period in the club's history from 1967-82, when it won five premierships from seven grand finals, Richmond has a history of cannibalising itself with arrogance and infighting.
This has left the club with a disgraceful history of drafting young talent over more than two decades.
Despite making the finals just twice (1995 and 2001) since the first draft in 1986, the Tigers have failed to capitalise on the early picks their many lowly placings offered them over the years.
Indeed, most of Richmond's early draft picks disappeared without trace until Brett Deledio was chosen at the end of 2004. He has since won two club best and fairests in weak sides.
The jury is still out on 2008 choices Tyrone Vickery and Jayden Post, but it takes bigger players longer to develop.
After a clean out of a dozen players during the off season, Richmond is starting with a very low base, playing youngsters of varying talents propped up by a handful of senior players.
Richmond's dreadful recruiting contrasts with Sydney carefully selecting ready-made players from other clubs.
The Swans are heading towards their 12th finals series in 15 years, which includes two grand finals and a premiership, in 2005.
At Richmond, the long-suffering supporters can only hope that another new broom under Hardwick will indeed bring a new dawn, not another false one.
It will be so long in the making Cousins won't be a part of it, so what is his value now?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/ben-cousins-of-no-value-as-tigers-rebuild-culture/story-e6frg7t6-1225852942366
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
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Hardly a scandal on Cousin's behalf, ever tried wrestling a violent drunk against his will? He was trying to take charge, which at the end of the day is not his job, he isn't 'the baby sitter', but he and the others tried to do the right thing and look after their mate, but he was obviously out of control.
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
yep
and on top of that what about all the other concessions they have had.
eff the afl and eff sydney
now remember when sydney were in dire straights , all the help they got when they were pathetic and could not win, well where is our help now
the afl are a bunch of idiots
Edited:for avoiding the swear filter. Repeat warning:The "C" word in any form (including edited versions) is unacceptable
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Absolutely. Greedy hypocrites is what they are! The worst thing that ever happened to this game was going national.
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
What's new.
AFL -corrupt farks.
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Absolutely. Greedy hypocrites is what they are! The worst thing that ever happened to this game was going national.
You can't be serious :o
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
yep
and on top of that what about all the other concessions they have had.
eff the afl and eff sydney
now remember when sydney were in dire straights , all the help they got when they were pathetic and could not win, well where is our help now
the afl are a bunch of idiots
what help do you actually think we deserve mate.
from where im standing we have dug ourselves a big massive hole and only we can get ourselves out.
eff the AFL we need to find a way to the top because we did it ourselves well and truly. We as a football club have made our club the basket case it is today.
If it wasnt for people like all of us on this forum this club would be ten feet under. FACT!!
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
yep
and on top of that what about all the other concessions they have had.
eff the afl and eff sydney
now remember when sydney were in dire straights , all the help they got when they were pathetic and could not win, well where is our help now
the afl are a bunch of idiots
what help do you actually think we deserve mate.
from where im standing we have dug ourselves a big massive hole and only we can get ourselves out.
eff the AFL we need to find a way to the top because we did it ourselves well and truly. We as a football club have made our club the basket case it is today.
If it wasnt for people like all of us on this forum this club would be ten feet under. FACT!!
Exactly my thoughts! Get out of the hole alone or go down trying!
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Absolutely. Greedy hypocrites is what they are! The worst thing that ever happened to this game was going national.
You can't be serious :o
You bet your life I'm serious. It was a move motivated by GREED. We had a good Victorian competition that had survived for 80-odd years as it was, and a bunch of fatcats at head office came along and ruined it with a flawed, uneven and poorly thought out model.
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Sydney 12 finals in 15 years.
sydney have been looked after, wait til western sydney and gc17 come in , goodbye sydney
You're not kidding Sydney have been looked after X. Tony Lockett was ready to sign with Richmond due to his family connections with John Northey. But the AFL poured cold water all over that didn't they?
And Barry Hall would have to be the luckiest man to ever play in a Premiership team the week after belting somebody.
What about when mick o ran into an umpire while celebrating a goal and got off scot free while others were copping fines for bumbing them while in play??
Has any one ever seen a swans game and thought "gee Sydney got the rough end of the stick from the umpires today"?
They make me :chuck.
Cant quite agree with you on the nationalisation of the game though. If the VFL had not done it, kerry packer or someone of his ilk would have in the same way as what happened with Rugby. That little fiasco ripped the heart and soul out of the game.
There would probably be more than South Melbourne and Fitzroy gone if that had happened to the VFL.
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Cant quite agree with you on the nationalisation of the game though. If the VFL had not done it, kerry packer or someone of his ilk would have in the same way as what happened with Rugby. That little fiasco ripped the heart and soul out of the game.
There would probably be more than South Melbourne and Fitzroy gone if that had happened to the VFL.
Yes Al, but just because the AFL may have prevented some even greedier bas***d coming along and doing even worse damage, doesn't make what they did right.
The concessions we talked about above that the Interstaters get are bad enough. As is the fact that South Melbourne and Fitzroy both went the way of the Dodo. But the thing I hate the most is that Interstate supporters have the best of both worlds.
They can watch their Eagles and Crows "Kick a Vic" in the national comp,and still go off and watch their Sturts and Norwoods and Glenelg's that they grew up with, compete in their local comp's. Whereas we can only watch Richmond in a national competition, competing against cashed up clubs from one and two team towns, with far greater resources at their disposal. And the good news is that there's even more on the way. And they're going to plunder the draft at a time when we're bottoming out and trying to re-build. And as always, we, their customers, had no say in the matter. They just declared "this is how we're dong it - like it or lump it", and dragged us all along for the ride, using the clubs we loved as hostages. I HATE THE AFL!!!
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Cant quite agree with you on the nationalisation of the game though. If the VFL had not done it, kerry packer or someone of his ilk would have in the same way as what happened with Rugby. That little fiasco ripped the heart and soul out of the game.
There would probably be more than South Melbourne and Fitzroy gone if that had happened to the VFL.
Yes Al, but just because the AFL may have prevented some even greedier bas***d coming along and doing even worse damage, doesn't make what they did right.
The concessions we talked about above that the Interstaters get are bad enough. As is the fact that South Melbourne and Fitzroy both went the way of the Dodo. But the thing I hate the most is that Interstate supporters have the best of both worlds.
They can watch their Eagles and Crows "Kick a Vic" in the national comp,and still go off and watch their Sturts and Norwoods and Glenelg's that they grew up with, compete in their local comp's. Whereas we can only watch Richmond in a national competition, competing against cashed up clubs from one and two team towns, with far greater resources at their disposal. And the good news is that there's even more on the way. And they're going to plunder the draft at a time when we're bottoming out and trying to re-build. And as always, we, their customers, had no say in the matter. They just declared "this is how we're dong it - like it or lump it", and dragged us all along for the ride, using the clubs we loved as hostages. I HATE THE AFL!!!
Sorry RR, I usually agree with your posts but I don't here. Going national is the single best thing that the AFL did at the time. They might not have done it as smart or as fair as they could but they put our game light years ahead of the competition and in this dog eat dog world, that positioning has become essential to it's survival. As Al said, the privatization of rugby league killed it at the source (and it's strongest point) - the links with it's supporter base - and it will never ever recover from that. We still have our 'local' competition and for many supporters they also/still have a secondary local club that they can interact or identify with to keep their involvement at a grass roots level if they choose. If the AFL had not entered the Brisbane market when they did there would be a skeleton following up here today and I'm sure the same goes for Sydney - it's this 'national' footprint that makes our code so attractive to sponsors at all levels - club, media and the AFL itself and these sponsorship dollars are what pays for the initial development of the kids we draft each November. Do I miss the days of going to the G to watch Richmond in the VFL when we ruled supreme? Yep, sure do, but I also miss running out to play a game at club level and I miss playing cricket with my mates in the summer and I miss getting peed with my mates at Sunday sessions and I miss a whole heap of things that I used to do when I was young and single. But that's just it - I'm not young and single any more and my life has moved on to different and better places - it needed to do that to allow me to grow. And so it was for the AFL - they had to move on to different and better places to allow the game to grow - because the alternative was so much more unpalatable. As much as you pine for the 'good old days', they were only ever that in your memory and had no place or no chance in your future. Embrace the nationality of our competition for what opportunity it presents us - premier team of Australia, not Victoria.
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Oh, I don't know Smokey. I just reckon our demise as a great club just happened to coincide with the nationalisation of the game.
Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe as many have theorised we just failed to sniff the wind and adapt to a changing landscape, and got left w-a-y, way behind. It just makes me so sad, because I can't see any way back to being a power again in this current climate, and with more gatecrashers coming in.
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Lol your not wrong very often Smoke.
RR I can see where your coming from. Vic teams don't get helped in the way interstate clubs. I hate to say it but we had our draft picks and chances to reign at the top again but failed to pick the better talent and also failed to develop the talent we had. Its well documented who we could have had up forward with Richo in Franklin and Pavlich as well as many other very successful players. If we had built a side equivilent to the Hawthorn build we wouldn't be having an issue.
If it makes you feel better about the Gold Coast situation think as if they started this year with No draft picks and player there VFL standard side in the AFL in 2010. They wouldn't win a game and would deserve to have Pick 1 etc next year from a 17 team competition. Sure we get a raw end of the stick compared to Melbourne, Carl, Haw and Saints bottoming out but we just have to cop it and make things work. Sydney and Freo have very few top 10 draft picks yet they still are more then competitive year in year out. Sydney more so. Need to find next years Barlow, and draft a 1st round steal like Selwood with our first draft pick and a Jack Grimes/Bastinac steal in our 2nd round. It happens every year. We just need it to be Richmond next year. Just pour all resources into recruiting and development nothing else matters.
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Hardly a scandal on Cousin's behalf, ever tried wrestling a violent drunk against his will? He was trying to take charge, which at the end of the day is not his job, he isn't 'the baby sitter', but he and the others tried to do the right thing and look after their mate, but he was obviously out of control.
Cousins has used up all his chances elsewhere.
Do you honestly think the club would have drawn attention to this by suspending him if he wasn't at least partly at fault at 3am?
Particularly after defending him so publicly only just last week?
He will not be at Tigerland in 2011.
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Smokey, you say that we still have our local competition to follow down here. But it's not Richmond, it's Coburg, an old VFA side with its' own history, colours and traditions. I only used to have a passing interest in the old VFA, but I used to follow Port Melbourne in the days of Fred Cooke.
This uneasy alliance with the Burgers is light years away from the win-win situation I mentioned, where the average South Aussie fan can go and watch his Crows or Power, as well as his original team, be it Sturt or Glenelg. Ditto in Perth.
This is a luxury I sure wish that I had as a Richmond supporter.
The fact that the league set up the competition the way it did, without due thought as to how it would properly and fairly construct the model was a HUGE MISTAKE, which cannot be dismissed lightly.
First up it cost South and Fitzroy their clubs. I know supporters of these two teams who are still devastated by this and, far from feeling compensated by Brisbanes three flags, simply gave the game away.
Secondly, the supporters of Melbourne-based clubs that survived were dragged, through the love of their teams, into a competition that was rigged against them on many levels.
First we had 10 teams in this town fighting for sponsors and members,while strong footy States like SA and WA shared their resources between only two sets of fans.
Then we had a governing body so hell-bent on conquering Rugby markets that they were prepared to ride roughshod over any considerations like equity to make Sydney and Brisbane successful.
Hence,things like Tony Lockett never making it to Tigerland, and the greater salary caps for Sydney and Brisbane.
And now they're doing it to us again with ridiculous and unwanted franchises like GC17 and Western Sydney coming in and stealing the cream of our draft picks at a time when we need to re-build after being decimated by a snake-oil merchant.
National Competition the best thing that happened to the game????
PIG'S A***E!!
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What? No nibbles! :sleep
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They might have run out of footy boots for Ben, ;)