How did you rate our 2014 season?

[one-eyed]

The obligatory end of season poll  .

How did you rate our season all up?

What went right?
What went wrong?
Who surprised/stepped up this year?
Who disappointed?
etc...

[one-eyed]

Here's The Age's report card to get discussion going ...


The Richmond report card

Matt Murnane
    The Age
    September 9, 2014


What went right for the Tigers in season 2014? And what went wrong?

H/A season: 8TH, 12-10

Finals Lost to Port Adelaide by 57 points, Elimination Final

What went wrong?

The first half of the year, basically. We won't know for some time whether the Tigers actually did change their game plan significantly during the off-season and struggled to make the adjustments, or whether the message fundamentally remained the same, but the players didn't execute. Regardless, history will remember Damien Hardwick's team bumbling its way through the first 14 rounds, chipping short and sideways all the while. Richmond slumped to as low as 16th at round 14, with a 3-10 win-loss record. A 17-point loss to Melbourne at the MCG in round 9 was the low point.

What went right?

The second half of the year, basically. What a comeback, the best pure football story of the year. What happens on the last day of a season - a bitterly disappointing showing in an elimination final against Port Adelaide, for example - can often be how a whole year is remembered. If that is the view of some, then they are doing Hardwick and his players a disservice. There were several factors - a lift in the behind-the-scenes, day-to-day standards, the emergence of new leaders and Trent Cotchin as a stronger skipper, as well as having their best players available. Instead of having to start scoring chains from deep in defence and risking turnovers, they sent the ball their way first and that allowed the backline to push up more often and launch counter-attacks from the centre of the ground.

Who stood tall?

The guys you expected would. Dustin Martin became arguably the hardest one-on-one match-up forward of centre (discounting Lance Franklin), Cotchin played unrestricted by injury, Brett Deledio was a game-breaker and Alex Rance might end up the All-Australian full-back, such was his impressive rise. He is a beauty. They also found a clearance expert in Anthony Miles, which allowed Hardwick to do more with Martin and Deledio.

Who didn't?

Measured against his previous standards, Ty Vickery didn't have a terrible year, but even he would admit that his 2014 didn't reach the level the Tigers were hoping it would. After showing encouraging signs pre-season, Hardwick set a benchmark of 40 goals for his talented tall forward. He managed 23 (third for the club).

Retirements, delistings

Daniel Jackson (retired), Jake King (retired).

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-richmond-report-card-20140908-10e4ys.html

[WilliamPowell]

Gave them a 5 wasn't a pass wasn't fail.

It was "holding pattern stuff"

At 3-10 I would have said 0

Going 9-0 to get to the finals flips it around a bit

The final was pathetic. But having said that personally always thought when the loss eventually came that it would be a big loss, a brutal loss and it was. That's probably why I'm not upset about was expecting it

It was a year where we were shown we still have a long way to go and we still have list problems

Challenge now is how much courage does the club have to fix it by making tough calls on players. I get the feeling de-listing wise we take the "soft" obvious options and trade wise we will do what we usually do .... very little, play it safe and we'll be left with a sense of "what if" again