Tigers to roar in 2007 - or else
24 August 2006
Herald-Sun
Jon Pierik
RICHMOND captain Kane Johnson has put his club on notice by claiming season 2007 will be a failure unless the Tigers make the finals.
While Johnson's primary focus is ensuring the Tigers finish this year with a positive vibe, he says the club must continue to make strides next year.
"If we can finish off the year with 11 or so wins going into next year, if we didn't make finals it would be a failure," he said yesterday.
"If our progression is going upwards, you would hope for 12, 13, 14 wins.
"We'll be aiming for that and if it doesn't happen, we'll go again.
"But definitely next year the aim would be to make finals. If it didn't (happen), I think we would be doing ourselves an injustice."
Johnson also revealed to the Herald Sun:
HE likes the new Tigers' "clash" guernsey, which features more yellow than the traditional strip.
HE wants the Tigers to finish this season like the Western Bulldogs of last year and carry that momentum into summer training and the new year.
THE Tigers have begun to train with the same purpose as the league's elite teams and a winning culture is starting to develop for the first time since he joined the club from Adelaide in 2003.
ANDREW Raines would be "stiff" to not claim the Rising Star award, and is one of the favourites to win the club's best-player award
HE wants to remain captain next year.
The Tigers have destroyed struggling Brisbane and Carlton in their past two matches, leaving them with 10 wins -- the same number as last year.
As they prepare to end the season against Essendon and West Coast, Johnson wants his team to look to the Bulldogs for guidance.
"I think at Richmond over the past 10 years, the culture hasn't been positive," he said.
"Because you have lost so many games, you get into a bit of a rut. The more we start winning and winning the games that we should win, I think we'll start to develop that winning culture.
"That's why it's important we finish off the year and not drag it out. My first three years here, the last half of the year was terrible.
"If you have a look at the Bulldogs last year, they finished like a train and have come into this year and look at what they have done."
Johnson, 28, said the class and development of the likes of Raines, the dashing half-back who has just signed a new three-year deal, Dean Polo, Matthew White, Danny Meyer, Adam Pattison and the injured Will Thursfield had buoyed spirits.
"It's just learning how to work, too," Johnson said.
"All the kids that come don't quite have the work ethic you need for AFL football. That takes time. It takes a couple of pre-seasons to learn it.
"Now with another pre-season, our training form will be right up, which will correlate into games."
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