One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on October 04, 2017, 03:02:16 PM
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Bone’s beef: No ‘i’ in this premiership-winning Tigers side
Chris McDermott,
The Advertiser
4 October 2017
A CHAMPION team or a team of champions. What would you prefer?
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas has labelled 2017 AFL premier Richmond “possibly the worst group of players to win a premiership”.
I can hear them boiling at Punt Road from here.
Thomas acknowledges that Tigers skipper Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Jack Reiwoldt and Alex Rance are stars of the game, but the rest he is not overly impressed with, to say the least.
The game has evolved since Grant’s days of button-up boots and flat punts.
In the mid ’90s when the Crows went back to back, it would be best remembered they did so with many players who were hardly household names.
Shane Ellen kicked five goals and Troy Bond four. Both could walk past you in the street and go unnoticed.
What about Kym Koster, Clay Sampson, Chad Rintoul, Matt Connell and Aaron Keating? Not huge names but massive players for the Crows in that premiership season.
You could possibly throw in David Pittman and Rod Jamieson.
They weren’t huge names outside of the Adelaide Football Club but club legends for all time to those that matter.
Peter Vardy joined the party in 1998 along with James Thiessen, Mark Stevens, Ben Marsh and Andrew Eccles.
Simon Goodwin ended up a superstar, too, but he was just a kid back then.
It is far too easy to judge players harshly and not respect their influence and impact on the team.
Now, more than ever, role players are the key to a team’s success. Players that aren’t blessed with some of the gifts of the bigger names but play a role that make the greats great.
Richmond had theirs, and perhaps a little more than most, but not much more.
Their mosquito fleet in attack of Butler, Lambert, Castagna and Graham were largely unheralded before Saturday but how will they remembered now in years to come?
Defenders Nathan Broad, Dylan Grimes and David Astbury are quiet achievers but will we say that if and when they are 200-game premiership players?
What about Nankervis? Houli? Rioli? Edwards? Prestia? Grigg?
There is very little wrong with this Richmond premiership team. In fact, there is nothing wrong with it.
Full credit to the Tigers.
On the biggest stage they produced their best performance.
That says it all about this premiership team and every other one that has gone before it.
Grand finals bring out the very best in some players and it overwhelms and consumes others.
That is why no one flukes a premiership. No one.
It demands so much more from players than any other game. There is nothing quite like it.
It is a place for a champion team only!
http://www.ntnews.com.au/sport/bones-beef-no-i-in-this-premiershipwinning-tigers-side/news-story/5177edd33a9eaffe4a00ef3de4bc530d
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:thumbsup
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4 wins Chris.
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So.......Premershp...
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4 wins Chris.
Lol.
We had 3 just in the finals!
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A good article.
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4 wins Chris.
:thumbsup
So good but it was a good article
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Always a good read his articles says it how it is.
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That is why no one flukes a premiership. No one.
This is so true.