Focussing on Stoppages

[mightytiges]

Tigers focus on stoppages
10:54:55 AM Fri 21 January, 2005
Jordan Chong
Sportal

Richmond is focusing heavily on improving its work at set-play situations, according to assistant coach Brian Royal.

Royal, reunited with senior coach Terry Wallace after the pair worked together at the Western Bulldogs between 1996 and 1999, has been placed in charge of ensuring the Tigers become more potent at the stoppages.

"We're not having your typical backline, forward line, midfield coaches as such. I'm managing all the set-play structures - centre-bounces, ball-ups, boundary throw-ins, kick-out," Royal said.

"I mean, it's important that we're organised to start with and that we practice them and we're disciplined in carrying out the structures that we have in place."

"We're working at the moment on those areas of the game, we haven't covered them all because time hasn't permitted that at this stage."

"Hopefully we're putting structures in place around those areas that will be very competitive when it comes to time. If you're very well organised and disciplined in those areas you can score quite regularly from them."

Despite the imminent arrival of intra-club, practice and Wizard Home Loans Cup matches, Royal says the focus on physical strength hasn't wavered despite the huge amount of material the coaching staff is trying to get through.

"Obviously the physical aspect and the competitive aspect of the game is fairly strong so we've got to make sure we maintain that but at the same time try not to get the guys hurt."

"Certainly the closer we get to games, probably the training time will shorten and obviously we'll start to really try and get our skill levels a little bit sharper."

"We've got a plan in place that we know exactly what happens from day to day, from week to week, from month to month. We'll cover it all by the time it comes to round one of the main season."

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=183158

[mightytiges]

Hellalujah   

Out of the many failings of Spud and the previous coaching staff, them having NFI when it came to set ups at stoppages IMV would have to be close to number 1. The number of times at a centre bounce we would get our hands roughly on the footy first only to then not know what to do with it or get bumped off the ball and turning it straight over to the opposition meant there was plenty of doing this  and this  . I don't think we ever heard of blocking or sheparding in tight ???. Our blokes always seemed to be in the wrong spots, flat footed and ball watching most of the time. There never seemed to be anyone hitting the contest at pace to create space and get the ball moving forward while teammates either ran to space to receive or blocked opponents to make time and open a path for their teammate with the footy to clear the contest and get a kick away.

[Harry]

Exactly right MT.  It was like a game of hot potato whenever we got first hands on the ball in the middle (mind you, it wasn't that often).  It was like "here you have, i don't want it".  And as you say our players were always flat footed, and there was no protection of the person in possession.

[Ox]

LMAO Spud u useless prik.
I still hate his guts.

[LondonTiger]

 

about time

[H Tiger]

Hellalujah   

Out of the many failings of Spud and the previous coaching staff, them having NFI when it came to set ups at stoppages IMV would have to be close to number 1. The number of times at a centre bounce we would get our hands roughly on the footy first only to then not know what to do with it or get bumped off the ball and turning it straight over to the opposition meant there was plenty of doing this  and this  . I don't think we ever heard of blocking or sheparding in tight ???. Our blokes always seemed to be in the wrong spots, flat footed and ball watching most of the time. There never seemed to be anyone hitting the contest at pace to create space and get the ball moving forward while teammates either ran to space to receive or blocked opponents to make time and open a path for their teammate with the footy to clear the contest and get a kick away.

Exactly right MT. It was like a game of hot potato whenever we got first hands on the ball in the middle (mind you, it wasn't that often). It was like "here you have, i don't want it". And as you say our players were always flat footed, and there was no protection of the person in possession.

Well HH and MT this goes against the grain because I am so glad dud Frawley is gonski but..................

I believe when we made the finals in 2001 and at the begining of 2002 our skills at the stopages were goodish.

It may have looked like hot potato but your skills as a side have to be good for that kind of close in ball movement. In saying that you have to a) get the ball and b) be in the right spot so good skills can be made use of.

In the last two years RFC has been extremely poor and I think lack of confidence has had an effect on the players skill levels.

Thank god Dud didn't get another year because the rest of your posts were spot on.
 

[mightytiges]

Agree HH that in 2001 our work at stoppages against the mediocre sides was adequate to goodish and that was enough to get us into the finals but against the top sides even then we got smashed especially in the midfield. We still got thumped by Brissy, Essendon, Port and Hawthorn that year who excluding us were the top 4 sides. Our bookends that year compensated many a time for our midfield deficiences and Benny Gale and Brodders had good final years.

Our confidence was smashed in that Essendon game in 2002 after we had just thumped the Pies. We were deluding ourselves that we were a top side and Spud came out in the press in the week leading up to the game saying we were a tougher and stronger side compared to 2001. No doubt Sheedy had that put up on the Dons lockers along with the can-can one . Of course we got pumped from the the first bounce and the team's belief has never recovered under the realization we were miles away. Still we recruited as though we were only one or two players short of a top side  .

It's true you need confidence to execute your skills especially in close and under Spud we had no belief but you also need those skills in the first place. We had and still have going on BK and fwoy's training reports blokes who miss simple targets by foot far too often by AFL standards. You also need a coach that drills the players in his set-ups over and over again so they have the confidence during match conditions to know know where they should be, where they should run to and what they need to do. You can see that happening in Wallace's training regime. If a player(s) can't do the drills at training then he most likely won't execute them under the pressure of matchday and it's time to say goodbye at the end of the year. One of the many problems with Spud was that he kept putting his faith in blokes that continually failed him and as a result we were left with a list in such a pathetic state that the only course of action for the new boys was to clean it out in huge chucks of 12-13 players at a time  .. 

Thank god Dud didn't get another year because the rest of your posts were spot on.
 

Too right  . Keeping him on last year was bad enough and we only did that to get rid of the stigma of sacking coaches so we could attract a real coach.

[H Tiger]

fair post MT.

Lets hopr those dormant skills return under Terry TC.

I watched year of the dog a week ago, very focused & ruthless individual is our Terry.

Still he is a career coach lets hope he contracts a dose of Richmonditis and begins to love the club, left the dogs in the lurch IMHO

[mightytiges]

Yeah let's hope so HT. Apart from one game against the bombers his one year as a player at Tigerland wasn't much to write home about. Terry did say when he took on the coaching job that he had unfinished business at Richmond.

Year of the Dog was good. Remember Wallace's "if I see anyone get pats on the back as they walk out of here I'll spew" after the doggies just fell short by a point coming back from 7 goals down. Yep a pretty intense bloke when it comes to footy. Wants to be a winner .

[Tiger Spirit]

Still he is a career coach lets hope he contracts a dose of Richmonditis and begins to love the club, left the dogs in the lurch IMHO

I have to say H Tiger, TW’s departure from the Bulldogs was one of my concerns about having him as coach.  But having heard him speak about it a number of times and having thought about it, I now realise he actually did them a favour by being honest and up-front about the whole thing.

Another Coach might well have dutifully stayed on till the bitter end.  But, being such a pro active person meant that TW couldn’t stay in the new circumstances he found himself in.  And if he was the sort of Coach that would’ve stayed on, prepared to hit his head against a brick wall, then it’s unlikely he would be the sort of Coach that could help us now.

TW has explained several times his reasons for leaving and that he had put together what he thought was a good group of coaching staff.  But due to financial constraints, mid-term, the Club let 4 of those people go.  Which, to TW, rightly or wrongly, was an untenable situation, when he’d spent a few years putting that team of staff together.  He saw the writing on the wall and resigned.  Everyone jumped up and down about TW resigning mid-term, but not when his staff was let go mid-term.  Two wrongs don’t make a right, but most of the flak seems to go one-way on this.  Whether that’s all there is to it or not I wouldn’t know.

TW know his own strengths and weaknesses and developed a team of assistants that could help him get the best out of his players and this group was all but taken out from under him.  I think the thing that most couldn’t deal with was the fact that TW was just honest about the situation, from his side of things and others didn’t understand.

What would be worse, having a Coach stay on and just go through the motions for a couple of seasons until his contract is up, knowing that he no longer has the resources available to get the same out of his players that he did before?  Or moving on and letting someone else with the enthusiasm to do the job take over, knowing and being comfortable, from the outset, with the circumstances he would be dealing with?

Wouldn’t it just be cheating the players, supporters and everyone else by staying on when you know things aren’t as they were before and are unlikely to improve in the short-term?  Maybe that’s a selfish way to look at things, but why continue to do something when you know you’re on a hiding to nothing?  And didn’t others want TW to stay on for their own selfish reasons as well?

At least Terry was able to be honest with himself and move on, without having others dictate what was in his best interests.  As a result, and even though it took some time, he was able to put himself in a position where he is now in a role that someone like him can thrive in, because he gets to call the shots.  Some people just don’t need the feeling of hitting their head against a wall, time after time.  Unlike some Richmond supporters I know.