One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on August 15, 2014, 04:45:11 PM
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Are the Tigers too easily pleased?
Garry Lyon
The Age
August 15, 2014 - 5:00PM
The Richmond Football Club is gaining a reputation for being far too easily pleased. They won't like reading this, but what other conclusion are we to draw from their abysmal start to the 2014 season, given the comments of four of their most senior players in recent weeks.
In explaining the Tigers' three-win, 10-loss record after 13 weeks, Ivan Maric had this to say: "Our training standards, and our standards around the football club were so poor. The attention to detail for the little things were not up to the standards we set the season before."
It is an opinion that has been shared by Troy Chaplin, Jack Riewoldt and Brett Deledio in recent weeks. All four are to be commended for their honesty and their willingness to share, publicly, what amounts to an embarrassing admission.
For it is very difficult to fathom how this football side could come back from its compulsory eight-week break over summer, having just competed in their first finals series in 13 years, with anything other than a fanatical and totally uncompromising desire to improve on what they delivered.
After all, it wasn’t as though they had charged admirably into a preliminary or grand final, only to be denied late in the last quarter. The bottom line is, they were bundled out in the first week of the finals by a side that wasn't good enough to qualify on a win/loss ratio, but rather gained entry by virtue of Essendon's suspension.
Having led by 26 points at half-time, they were completely overrun by Carlton in the second half, resulting in a 46-point turnaround and an eventual 20-point loss. It's hardly an excuse for complacency.
After a 15-win home-and-away season, that finals loss should have hurt so badly that the pain of finals defeat should have been the motivating factor that drove their pre-season training and preparation to a whole new level this year.
But what we are hearing now, from the playing group, is that it was anything but. That, in hindsight, they allowed their standards to drop away so much that by the time the AFL season came around they were ill-equipped, both physically and mentally, to deal with the demands and pressure that a repeat finals campaign demands.
They were too easily pleased with what they delivered last year and didn't come prepared to pay the price to improve on that result.
And if they think a barnstorming, flashing finish to the season, that has them as an unlikely contender for a finals spot with three weeks to go is enough to wipe the sins of earlier in the year, then they are in grave danger of falling for the same old trap all over again.
Making the finals would not be enough to suggest they have advanced on last year. Winning a final would just be a pass mark, and anything less would be a failure in a season of lost opportunity. And if the players are not thinking that way, they are allowing themselves to be seduced by a series of results that have come about once the pressure valve of expectation was finally released.
Thoroughbred trainers will tell you they have all been seduced by horses in their stable that made a habit of getting back in their races, only to flash down the outside when the race was over to record an eye-catching fifth or sixth.
Ridden "on the speed" the following start, to be in a position to win at the top of the straight, the same horse drops the bit and tails off towards the rear of the field. Put simply, some horses are better chasers than they are leaders, but they never quite get to the finishing line first.
Richmond has played its best and most consistent football when it became almost certain that it would not be playing in September this year. And yes, I know there were injuries to Maric and Alex Rance and Brett Deledio early in the year, but so what? Take a look at the injury list of the competition leaders this season and you get an example of coping with adversity.
This was a side coming off a 15-win season. It needed to be able to cover the loss of important players and still find a way to win.
Yet, instead, it slumped to a series of embarrassing losses that led to some confused messaging and plenty of head scratching.
The positive news is the Tigers, belatedly, appear to have nailed down the issues that led to them at one stage being the biggest under-achievers in the competition. As stated, the players owned up to the fact that they had come back to training, lacking a hard edge. Then the acid was put on their captain, Trent Cotchin, to be harder and more demanding of the group.
A similar message was relayed to Damien Hardwick, that the playing group wanted stronger direction. The implied criticism there is that they were getting away with too much. That the leaders didn't identify that the standards of last year had dropped.
And while you would much prefer that the entire playing group were capable of addressing these issues as they arose, which you suspect would happen at a Sydney or a Hawthorn, the reality is the Tigers are still trying to develop a culture of "self diagnosis" and ‘"self medication" and in the interim they will need strong guidance and stuff.
Their form in the past six weeks, rather than stuff the form of last year, adds to the perception that they struggle with expectation. Their wins over West Coast, Port Adelaide and, last Friday night, Essendon, should not be celebrated as the surprise uprising of an emerging force.
They should be seen as a sign of the logical and continued development of a team that worked extremely hard last season to put itself in contention, and which has worked even harder again this year to benefit from, and improve on a long overdue finals appearance.
That there is undoubted excitement because of the unexpected push for a spot in the eight should not lose sight of the reasons the Tigers are on the outside in the first place.
They deserve credit for gathering themselves and being able to take stock in the middle of a season that was going horribly wrong. But unless they learn from the reasons why they find themselves in this position, they will be in danger of becoming one of those frustrating types that comes flying home when the race is well and truly over.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/are-the-tigers-too-easily-pleased-20140815-104g48.html
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Excellent article.
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Excellent article.
I agree expect Lyon loves to death ride Richmond ever since he wrote that now infamous article comparing his beloved Dees and the Tigers stating how they were both up-and-coming sides but by his estimation, Melbourne would rise up the ladder quicker and stronger. How embarrassing :stupid
What I do like from the article is that he suggests that if we do not learn from the mistakes of complacency and finger pointing from early in the year then we are fated to make the same mistakes over and over again. This is a fair call.
I think we have made a clear change this time. I think the playing group and culture of the team has changed. We seem to be far more demanding of each other and the leaders are driving the expectations to training and adhering to the game plan and non-negotiables.
People will argue that this article is just telling the truth but I just think its another opportunity for Lyon to try and rain on our parade and try and turn what could be an exciting positive push for the finals into a negative.
In fact he sounds like he's been reading some of the 'glass half empty' posters around here :shh
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Lyon trolling Richmond again
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Lyon trolling Richmond again
:yep
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lol
Lyon is such a crying dog-mole.
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lol
Lyon is such a crying dog-mole.
:yep
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Ela vre, The Mighty Hippotigris!
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He absolutely hates us.
Can't stand to see us above Melbourne.
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Pains me to say it but it's a good article. he makes a lot of points that many on here have during the course of the season
He may hate us and it is a genuine given he does but in this case IMHO there's not much you can whack him for
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Pains me to say it but it's a good article. he makes a lot of points that many on here have during the course of the season
He may hate us and it is a genuine given he does but in this case IMHO there's not much you can whack him for
Except stating the bleeding obvious because he hates us.
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Right.
Whack him for being a lagging dog and having a crack when he feels as tho he can hide behind fact ;D
He lives in a Glass house AND SHOULD KNOW BETTER GARY !!!! :police:
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Trash article full of inaccuracies and self serving arrogance :wallywink
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I hate the prick, don't rate him - but he nailed this article.
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I hate the prick, don't rate him - but he nailed this article.
:yep
:outtahere
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I thought his article was excellent.
It's a real shame that it has taken them this long to realise that there were poor standards at the club.
The Prima-Donna paradise, near enough is good enough, substandard mediocre culture is what a lot of us on OER were screaming about last year besides the first final in 13 years and because of this we weren't suprised that the cycle of Skata was repeating.
It's mind boggling that they couldn't see it or that the standards went backwards instead of being raised to another level after losing to the 9th place cheating scum. :banghead
We can only hope this is the correction & wake up that was needed, but how do we really know if Tigeritis™©® is finally gone?
.......
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Got that 100% right did Garry. And I hate to admit that because he is a Richmond-hating sycophant.
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Pains me to say it but it's a good article. he makes a lot of points that many on here have during the course of the season
He may hate us and it is a genuine given he does but in this case IMHO there's not much you can whack him for
x2 the one thing id add is, and he doesnt say is.
THE LIST IS GROSSLY OVERRATED.
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Are the Tigers too easily pleased?
Garry Lyon
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/are-the-tigers-too-easily-pleased-20140815-104g48.html
While you make some valid points about us, worry about your own basket case of a club, Garry. You never have the guts to heavily criticise your own joke of a club while you continually take potshots and write critical articles about Richmond. No doubt tomorrow night on Footy Classified, it'll be another soft and quick dee-flection like "yes, it was a very disappointing day for all connected with the Melbourne footy club but Roosy and the players know that and they have this week to atone for such a disappointing display and effort" ::). The same goes for Mike Sheahan who is another who won't go to town on his beloved Dees. Red and blue protected species :sleep.
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Pains me to say it but it's a good article. he makes a lot of points that many on here have during the course of the season
He may hate us and it is a genuine given he does but in this case IMHO there's not much you can whack him for
x2 the one thing id add is, and he doesnt say is.
THE LIST IS GROSSLY OVERRATED.
Not really, most people rate it a 7-12 list which is about where we're at.
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Garry Lyon = The Hairy Malaka.
Melbourne Football Club = Malakia Football Club.
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Are the Dees too easily pleased?
Yay! We got Roos!
Oh... We're still the crappest team imaginable.
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No 100+ point defeats this year. Happy days. :help
Next year our aim is to win a home game at the G. 0/11 this year.
Any new franchises coming through?
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No 100+ point defeats this year. Happy days. :help
Next year our aim is to win a home game at the G. 0/11 this year.
Any new franchises coming through?
I thought we had won 4 games at the G and probably 5 with the saints this year.
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No 100+ point defeats this year. Happy days. :help
Next year our aim is to win a home game at the G. 0/11 this year.
Any new franchises coming through?
I thought we had won 4 games at the G and probably 5 with the saints this year.
Think he is talking about the mighty Dees, the goal kicking sensations of 3 goals in a game of footy
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No 100+ point defeats this year. Happy days. :help
Next year our aim is to win a home game at the G. 0/11 this year.
Any new franchises coming through?
I thought we had won 4 games at the G and probably 5 with the saints this year.
Think he is talking about the mighty Dees, the goal kicking sensations of 3 goals in a game of footy
Of course. Should have read the previous posts! :wallywink
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LMAO@Lyons beloved demons losing at home to a GWS side by 64 points with 19 players and no captains on the field after half time.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J88tzUXG9GI/maxresdefault.jpg)
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Spot on article, and very pleased that the playing group may have been instrumental in the turnaround.
Maybe our group is finally coming together............Remember the Titans!!
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Gary has gone whack to his Dees on his weekly video thing he does with Bin Boy Barrett ;D
Looking forward to Footy Classified this evening :rollin
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dropping this article on the eve of the team's 7th straight win.....not sooki grapes?
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LMAO@Lyons beloved demons losing at home to a GWS side by 64 points with 19 players and no captains on the field after half time.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J88tzUXG9GI/maxresdefault.jpg)
Hey easy up, they did kick three goals for the whole game against the much vaunted GWS defence
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As the late, great David Hookes once said
"People in glasshouses shouldn't walk around in the nude"
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Yes
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I don't think so, we had a good year and should be proud of what we achieved