AFL hopes soar, until reality sets inBy Neil Cross
abc.net.au
Posted June 08, 2012 There are three critical times in the AFL calendar when expectation appears to overwhelm reality. At the beginning, in the middle and then in September.
At the start of each season, every team talks of records being broken in the gym and on the track. Every club talks of a finals finish. Every fan is filled with hope.
Around mid-June, there is again a good deal of hyperbole based on the performances of the clubs during the first half of the season.
Some of the discussion deems clubs worthy of a place in the eight. Then there is a list of battlers just beyond the worthy and finally the clubs deemed also-rans.
Again in September, the expectation rises. Usually it peaks after the first week of finals. Inevitably the winners in the lower half of the eight are talked up as being real contenders for the premiership. Reality is usually restored after the second week of finals.
So there are three distinct times when clubs are universally assessed and their futures guessed at. Then there are the Tigers.
Special caseRichmond has become a special case. And it is happening again. While it happens to be mid-season, the reality is this. Any time the Tigers put together a few wins there is a rising tide of emotion that declares the yellow-and-black is back.
Once again, the Tigers are supposedly contenders. Their young players have developed, their game plan is locked in and their performances back up the assessment that they are the real deal. The Tigers have won four of their past five games, among them solid wins over top eight sides, Sydney and Hawthorn.
Hang on. They are 10th on the ladder.
But in the world of the Tiger fan - and plenty of others - that's just a minor detail. For supporters who have seen their side play in the finals just twice since their last grand final appearance in 1982, any sign of progress is to be firmly embraced, hugged, gripped, squeezed and - only when all hope is gone - discarded.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has tried to manage expectations, but nevertheless is a believer.
"We've got the players to take us wherever we need to go," Hardwick said in recent days.
"The core group is here that's going to take Richmond, I think, to its next finals campaign."
But he added a note of caution.
"We've just got to keep adding players along the way," he said. "I've got no doubt they'll get there at some stage."
Reality checkAt some stage. The reality for Richmond is that, with five wins after 10 rounds, another seven victories, perhaps even eight, are going to be needed to ensure a place in the top eight come the finals. That would be seven (or eight) wins from 12 remaining games. In the cut-throat world of the AFL that will be no easy task.
On the other hand, as the ladder stands now, the Tigers will only have to play three sides in the top eight during those 12 games.
The Tigers passed 50,000 members this week and have a target of 75,000 by 2014. There have even been suggestions the 100,000-member mark is not beyond the club.
Performance on and off the field are intrinsically linked. The major problem remains whether expectation and reality are still too far apart for the Tigers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-08/afl-season-expectation-richmond/4060484?section=sa
