One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on May 09, 2024, 12:28:22 AM
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From injuries to coaching decisions and even umpiring calls, it's all going wrong at Richmond in 2024
Cameron Rose
theRoar.com.au
8 May 2024
As far as flags go, Fremantle and St Kilda are clubs with the two saddest histories in the AFL, having only won one premiership between them – and even then, the Saints’ triumph was way back in the days of black and white TV.
The fans of the 16 other teams will tell you that when you lose to both of these clubs within a month of each other, that is when yours has truly hit rock bottom. This is the situation Richmond is currently in.
No team has had more senior players on their injury list this year than the Tigers, but much of that has been self-inflicted.
Dion Prestia has probably had more soft tissue injuries than anyone else in the AFL, yet Richmond saw fit to back him up off an interstate trip and five-day break between Round 0 and 1.
He has played 59 games out of the last 97. He is a shadow of his former self when he is out there, and can’t possibly be offered another contract.
Jacob Hopper has played less than 50% of games due to injury since the start of 2022, yet the Tigers rushed him straight back in after a stuff layoff, only to reinjure himself again.
Jack Graham is another who is always coming back from a quad or hamstring, forever on the edge of doing another.
As fine a player as Dylan Grimes has been over a distinguished career, his body is also breaking down, and he should arguably have retired with Jack Riewoldt and Trent Cotchin last year.
That would have given more games to the likes of up-and-comers Tom Brown and James Trezise.
In fact, Richmond has been undergoing quite an injury crisis for the last 18 months, ever since Peter Burge vacated the Physical Performance Manager role at the end of 2022, defecting to Hawthorn.
The soft tissue injuries have piled up under Luke Meehan, whose position must come under scrutiny.
Tom Lynch, Noah Balta, Tim Taranto and Jack Ross are others on the injury list, along with year-ending ACLs to Josh Gibcus and Judson Clarke.
Even still, the Tigers under Adem Yze have mostly shown great heart while under-manned this season, apart from their deplorable first half to open the season against Gold Coast, when they were 10 goals down before they knew what hit them.
They pushed Carlton to within a goal in Round 2, despite losing three players to injury by half-time. They pushed Port Adelaide for three quarters in Round 3, beat Sydney in Round 4 when they fielded their best team for the year, and should have beaten St Kilda in Gather Round.
Since then, the wheels have fallen off a bit, with comfortable losses to West Coast, Melbourne (where they were at least respectable against a premiership contender), and Fremantle.
Yze will of course get time to prove his worth, but that doesn’t mean he should escape notice.
Forced to play an ex-rugby league convert in Mykelti Lefau as the main focal point up forward with Lynch and Balta absent, the question has to be asked of Yze how he has adjusted the Richmond gameplan to adapt to these circumstances.
Against Melbourne in Round 7, Steven May and Jake Lever had 22 marks and almost 50 disposals between them, as time and again they marked and repelled everything that came their way.
The next time the Tigers stepped out, against Fremantle on Sunday, Luke Ryan was allowed to dictate proceedings to the tune of 15 marks and 30 touches (not including kick-ins).
In both games, there were no answers from the coach’s box as the same mistakes kept repeating over and over, long high balls to the advantage of the opposition backmen.
Yze, missing his starting midfield of Taranto, Prestia, Hopper and Graham, admitted in the post-match press conference that he implemented a structure against Fremantle that kept Shai Bolton out of the game in the first half.
Bolton is by far the most dangerous player at Richmond these days and was coming off a stuff run where he was averaging 21 disposals and two and a half goals a game.
He had 13 and 0 against the Dockers. This was an appalling error of coaching, regardless of experience.
These are warning signs about Yze’s credentials and suitability for a senior role.
The umpiring of Richmond has started to get some traction in mainstream media over the last week, but it’s certainly no news to Tiger fans. You don’t have to read too deeply between the lines to know that those who have been at the club in recent years believe the umpiring department has a set against them.
Whichever breakdown you use over the last three or five years, Richmond’s stuff differential is so far into the negative that it wouldn’t even appear on a graph with the 17 other clubs.
The Tigers were -227 between 2021-23; the next worst was Hawthorn at -85, while the Western Bulldogs fared best at +160.
There was always talk of Hardwick’s game style being conducive to giving away free kicks, but that has gone out the window with Gold Coast sitting +22 in 2024, against Yze’s Tigers ranked 18th in the metric at -49.
Tim Taranto’s personal free kick count was in the positive over his time at the Giants, but he went at -10 in his first year at Richmond.
It is certainly interesting how each round the opposing club miraculously gives away significantly less free kicks against Richmond than they average against the rest of the competition.
The Tigers are also at a pivotal stage of their list build. They still have 15 premiership players from the glory years, but Noah Balta is the only one you could confidently say has his best years in front of him.
Shai Bolton, Liam Baker and Jayden Short should maintain their peak level for a while yet. However, Baker has been making headlines as someone who could be traded back to Western Australia at season’s end.
The conundrum is whether to trade out those with some capital attached to them, and dig deeply into upcoming drafts – or do you keep the veterans around to set the standards and nurture the next wave of talent coming through.
The club itself hasn’t been setting a clear direction this season if the intent is to build for the future.
The 31yo journeyman Sam Naismith, while a great football story in and of himself, has been selected ahead of promising ruck-forward Samson Ryan, who had been in strong VFL form.
Tyler Sonsie (21yo) and Kane McAuliffe (19) have been chopped and changed several times, with no continuity in game time or position. Tom Brown (20) has looked right at home down back, but only got an opportunity through injury in the first place.
Football fans need to be trading in one of two commodities – wins or hope.
At the moment, Richmond is offering neither, and the road ahead looks grim.
From a powerhouse dynasty as little as four seasons ago, to now sitting one spot above beleaguered North Melbourne, and behind West Coast and Hawthorn, it’s been a spectacular fall from grace.
Things can turn quickly when all the right pieces of the puzzle are in place, regardless of what the list looks like at any given point in time.
It’s just hard to see what sort of jigsaw is being assembled at Tigerland.
https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/05/08/from-injuries-to-coaching-decisions-and-even-umpiring-calls-its-all-going-wrong-at-richmond-in-2024/
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Hard to argue with any of that..... :shh
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Worrying signs for Yze indeed.
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100% accurate.
You mention standards have dropped around here and you cop a pile on. The hopper and prestia comments here are exaxtly what people are talking about.
The best comment was saved for old mate Meehan.
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Excellent opinion piece.
Hard to disagree when the examples are well argued. :whistle :shh
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Very good article. Raised some very good points.
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Ok. So what's the solution(s)?
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So we all now agree that Meehan is absolute dud? :rollin
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So we all now agree that Meehan is absolute dud? :rollin
Seems that way
But I think the point being made by the defenders was that he was being blamed for a lot of things out of his control
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Ok. So what's the solution(s)?
1. Maintain a high standard of excellence throughout the club and football department (standards have dropped considerably since winning premierships were getting pretty regular)
2. Get a footy department that is fanatical at maintaining a high excellence culture around the club.
(Allow mediocrity to fester and it infects like a deadly virus and no one is immune to its wiles)
3. Get the best recruiting and list management team money can buy.
(Without spending the money we will languish back to the days of ol' legend Francis "Betamax" Jackson and his trusty video analysis).
4. Spend money on the footy department to ensure the best development possible.
(If your organisation insists on maintaining deficiencies with low investment into development it will stagnate into a middling non existent state of nothingness)
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It’s a fine line trading out all of your veterans. The result of that is hawthorn and north. If we can make a few trades that make sense ( baker wanting to go home, same with Graham ) then I think we can rejuvenate will also being competitive and maintaining a good culture.
Some people will say it’s better to bottom out than to be mediocre and there could be truth in that but I think maintaining a strong culture is important and that’s why you need veterans
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Great article and solid commentary on Yze.
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I think most of us are in agreement that Dion gets his gold watch at seasons end .
He might be able to get a two year deal at North Melbourne to help build their losing culture- which would be an excellent result for him .
Grimes gets his gold watch too - I hope he is remembered as the defender who stepped up magnificently after Rance went down with injury ….and not the 2024 incarnation.
To be fair to Yze , Richmond are currently playing with a makeshift midfield and a makeshift forward line where our full forward is a rugby convert . You would think it’s a recipe for a few 100 pt spankings- but somehow we are remaining in games for long periods. There’s no Mark Neeld blood baths .
The back six are working their behinds off under enormous pressure every week. Nank , despite his brain implosions is still a very competitive beast .
Taranto and Balta suffered contact injuries- and that’s just bad luck . Gibcus fell awkwardly and did his knee , again really bad luck . Prestia is a ticking time bomb and unfortunately hooper is going down the same path .
I think we have been given a glimpse on what it can all look like when we have close to our best 22 on the park - the win over Sydney is testimony to this .
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I think most of us are in agreement that Dion gets his gold watch at seasons end .
He might be able to get a two year deal at North Melbourne to help build their losing culture- which would be an excellent result for him .
Grimes gets his gold watch too - I hope he is remembered as the defender who stepped up magnificently after Rance went down with injury ….and not the 2024 incarnation.
To be fair to Yze , Richmond are currently playing with a makeshift midfield and a makeshift forward line where our full forward is a rugby convert . You would think it’s a recipe for a few 100 pt spankings- but somehow we are remaining in games for long periods. There’s no Mark Neeld blood baths .
The back six are working their behinds off under enormous pressure every week. Nank , despite his brain implosions is still a very competitive beast .
Taranto and Balta suffered contact injuries- and that’s just bad luck . Gibcus fell awkwardly and did his knee , again really bad luck . Prestia is a ticking time bomb and unfortunately hooper is going down the same path .
I think we have been given a glimpse on what it can all look like when we have close to our best 22 on the park - the win over Sydney is testimony to this .
:clapping :clapping
Excellent post
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Ok. So what's the solution(s)?
1. Maintain a high standard of excellence throughout the club and football department (standards have dropped considerably since winning premierships were getting pretty regular)
2. Get a footy department that is fanatical at maintaining a high excellence culture around the club.
(Allow mediocrity to fester and it infects like a deadly virus and no one is immune to its wiles)
3. Get the best recruiting and list management team money can buy.
(Without spending the money we will languish back to the days of ol' legend Francis "Betamax" Jackson and his trusty video analysis).
4. Spend money on the footy department to ensure the best development possible.
(If your organisation insists on maintaining deficiencies with low investment into development it will stagnate into a middling non existent state of nothingness)
On point 3 you do realise Jackson build our premiership list so your way of track there. All other points I agree on. That's why I can't understand we gave the tap on the shoulder to Balme and he wanted to go on. His the best footy operator out there and in our current time his calm , awareness and expertise even as a advisor would be do beneficial.
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Ok. So what's the solution(s)?
1. Maintain a high standard of excellence throughout the club and football department (standards have dropped considerably since winning premierships were getting pretty regular)
2. Get a footy department that is fanatical at maintaining a high excellence culture around the club.
(Allow mediocrity to fester and it infects like a deadly virus and no one is immune to its wiles)
3. Get the best recruiting and list management team money can buy.
(Without spending the money we will languish back to the days of ol' legend Francis "Betamax" Jackson and his trusty video analysis).
4. Spend money on the footy department to ensure the best development possible.
(If your organisation insists on maintaining deficiencies with low investment into development it will stagnate into a middling non existent state of nothingness)
On point 3 you do realise Jackson build our premiership list so your way of track there. All other points I agree on. That's why I can't understand we gave the tap on the shoulder to Balme and he wanted to go on. His the best footy operator out there and in our current time his calm , awareness and expertise even as a advisor would be do beneficial.
Point three depends on how you approach it. Yes he was in charge of recruiting or played a significant role for thirteen years. Boy he made some blunders.
Imo we won flags despite Jacksons ineptness.
Forget about the early picks and geez he had more than his fair share of misses. They are highly regarded for their later picks and rookie picks.
How many did he get after the second round. Excluding trades he managed to snare in his first 8 years King rookie, Nahas rookie, Astbury 35, Grimes psd, and Houli psd who doesnt really count because essendon refused to trade and he walked to us their.
Rinse and repeat .
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Nothing is going wrong, it was time for change, just have to take positive look. Need to cut back , change then move forward. The dynasty ended.. time to start the next one