Hardwick's post-match media conference / Finals inexperience costly

[one-eyed]

Dimma's post-match media conference ...

VIDEO: http://www.afl.com.au/video/2014-09-07/postmatch-tigers

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Coin toss irrelevant to how game panned out, says Tigers
Jennifer Phelan 
afl.com.au
September 7, 2014 8:09 PM


TRENT Cotchin and Damien Hardwick have defended Richmond's decision to kick into a strong breeze in the first quarter of Sunday's 57-point loss to Port Adelaide.
 
And, they've found an unlikely ally in Power coach Ken Hinkley, who agreed Cotchin didn't make a "horrendous mistake" as it was simply a tough call.
 
The Tigers won the toss in Sunday's elimination final at Adelaide Oval and Cotchin signalled they would kick towards the ground's northern end.

The Power then booted eight goals to one to open up a 42-point lead by quarter-time and effectively put the result to bed.
 
Cotchin's call was criticised by many commentators – and game great Jonathan Brown, who labelled it "captaincy 101" to kick with the wind when you win the toss – but the Tigers' skipper believed it didn't give away a significant advantage.
 
"I think if you looked up it looked like it was going the other way but it was pretty swirly out there so I didn’t feel there was a tremendous advantage," Cotchin said.
 
"I think it was more about the way we played in the first quarter that resulted in their [eight] goals, which is nearly how much we've averaged against us for the whole game over the last three months."
 
Hardwick said they had dubbed the conditions as blustery at both ends and refused to contribute the decision to how the game panned out.
 
"At the end of the day, the wind has got nothing to do with putting your head over the ball and not winning hard contests," Hardwick said.
 
"You get your opportunity with the wind the next quarter - the reality is we just didn't play well enough from the start."
 
Hinkley, who naturally has more experience at Adelaide's new home of football than the Tigers, conceded the Power didn't know what they would have done had the toss gone in their favour.
 
"In the box we weren't sure …  it felt like the breeze was affecting both ends to be fair," Hinkley said.
 
"Travis [Boak] asked me two or three times 'which way are we going to kick?' and we weren't absolutely, 100 per cent sure ourselves.
 
"They looked bad at the end but … Trent Cotchin didn't make a horrendous mistake or anything, it was just a pretty tough decision to make."
 
Cotchin couldn't hide his frustration at the way the game slipped away from his team so easily in the first quarter.
 
But with players butchering the ball and failing to match the Power on the outside, the home side ran away to the game-breaking lead with little resistance.
 
"You get frustrated. You want to do something to change that," he said.
 
"The reality is one person is not going to make a big difference.
 
"We just had to go back to doing what we knew works best for us but unfortunately we couldn't sustain it for long enough periods in the game to turn the momentum back our way."
 
As for the Tigers' season, Cotchin said they would "head back to the drawing board" after falling in an elimination final for the second consecutive season.
 
While he conceded it was a "mighty effort" to recover from a 3-10 status midway through the year to win nine in a row and make the finals, the Tigers simply had to get better.
 
"It's going to be a tough summer. A bitter pill to swallow again but we'll learn from it," he said. 
 
"As we've spoken about all year it's just about driving those behaviours and standards that you can't afford to let slip at any stage whether that's just resting on your laurels.
 
"We just need to keep pushing forward and hopefully guys jump on board and we become a stronger and better side."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-09-07/coin-toss-irrelevant

[one-eyed]

Summary:

* Start was poor. We couldn't get our hands on the ball, when we did we turned it over and we just couldn't win critical contests. Unfortunately, we gave  back far too easily and had the ball kicked over head for goals. We just didn't start well.

* It was blustery at both ends. At the end of day, the wind has nothing to do with it as you've still got to be able to put your head over the ball and win  the hard contest. You get the opportunity with the wind the next quarter anyway. The reality is we just didn't play well enough from the start.

* Port were very good and we didn't play anywhere near our potential. They were up and going, winning the contests and they got their outside speed back. We  just couldn't control the contests. Everytime we got our hands on the ball, we either made a mistake by hands or through kicking errors. Everytime you do  that you get caught offside. On the turnover, their chasers are then goal side. Sadly most of those mistakes that cost us goals early were mistakes made by  our offence.

* Don't believe the 9 straight wins eventually took it's toll. It's a tough environment here and once you give them a 3-4 goal start they can steamroll you.  You've got to take the emotion out of it. At the end of the day, we just couldn't win contests and we turned over the footy too much in the first quarter.

* When 8 goals to one down at quarter time, you're left to shuffling deck chairs. You're moving players around just to get something back. Our defence was soundly beaten and up forward we were soundly beaten also. We just couldn't get anything going, so we were throwing players around left, right and centre. Situation is when you're in that situation you're in a bit of trouble.

* Players disappointed as you'd expect. You come so far to be a one in eight chance and it's a long time before you get a chance to get there again. Our boys  are bitterly disappointed. Bitterly disappointed with our performance in a big game. We played nowhere near our potential. We were always going to be  disappointed.

* You've got to take your chances when they present and we didn't. We didn't use the ball anywhere the way we'd like. We gave it back to early and all of a  sudden you're chasing tail. You try to be more aggressive with your ball movement and you just keep giving it back again. It's just one of those games and  unfortunately on one of the most important occasions for our footy club.

* You've got to make finals to give yourself a chance and our boys have done that. The wrong thing to do is to dismiss that. The reality is we had a 12-10  season and we fought back from 3-10 which is a unbelievable scoreline. But the fact of the matter is once the regular season has finished, finals start and  it's a new season. So we need to get better. We know we do. We'll work incredibly hard over the summer but so will all other sides. We need to work on some  things to get our game up and running again.

* There's a number of things. Too simplistic to point at one thing (eg: mental application). There was a number of things that let us down today as there's been a number of things that have let us down over the season. We'll address those. We'll work on those over the summer as that is what preseason is for. We're short of where we need to be at the moment.

* What we've got to get better at is whenever you have a winning season it's a good season. Unfortunately, once the stops, finals start. Like I said, it's a tale of two. You give yourself a chance to play finals but you get measured by your finals success. We've made the last two finals but haven't performed in both. We've got some work to do.

* You look at history and most sides take a couple of goes before they get a crack. It took Hawthorn two goes before they got a third. It's a process. We've got a relatively young core group. We'll continue to add to that and continue to get better. We've got a few deficiencies in a few areas we'll address over summer via the draft and trade. We'll work our way back give ourselves a chance.

* Anything the players could've done to stem the bleeding in those first 17 minutes?
  Well many of those Port goals were due to mistakes by our offence. For example, Houli running through the centre and bouncing the ball wrongly. Just simple  errors that were uncharacteristic in nature. We had opportunities to go forward but for whatever reason we stuffed the handball or stuffed the kick. The  pressure was okay. Listen, Port around the ball their pressure was pretty good but a number of those areas where ours. They were something we could control. That's the disappointing thing. The last 10-12 weeks we've been pretty good in those areas but we failed dismally today.

* Yeah, it is hard to take the speed of game away from Port when you turn the ball over and it goes back over your head. The inside 50 count in the first quarter was similar. They just used the ball more efficiently. Most of their goals came from the goalsquare. Pretty hard to defend when they are coming from there.

* If Port win the ball on the inside, they can hurt you on the outside. We knew that coming into the game and coming into the round 17 game. We won the contested footy last time. This time it was even but they won more of the critical ones when it needed to be one. So they are good when they do that. They have exceptional speed on the outside and exceptional talent.

* Morris is incredibly brave. By his own admission, he didn't have his greatest game. He needed a shoulder reconstruction in NAB 3. We've had shoulder surgery booked in for every week we've been going. Terrific competitor is Steve.

* Didn't know we'd be in our clash jumper until I saw it. Not too sure. The AFL are like the fonz ... woh woh woh .... wrong, good luck.

[tdy]

Hardwick says he knows what we need player wise but he wont tell the press that. Pity but wise on his behalf

[Chuck17]

Plop plop plop

[one-eyed]

Finals inexperience costly for beaten-up Tigers

Jennifer Phelan 
afl.com.au
September 7, 2014 8:40 PM

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has conceded the Tigers' finals inexperience played a part in their brutal dismissal from this year's series by Port Adelaide on Sunday.
 
There was no way back for the Tigers after the Power stormed to a 42-point lead at quarter-time, with the home side eventually winning by 57 in front of another 50,000-plus crowd at Adelaide Oval.
 
It's the second straight year the Tigers have experienced finals heartbreak after being knocked out by Carlton in an elimination final 12 months ago.

Hardwick conceded it naturally took time for teams to find their feet in finals after years of failing to make it to the big stage.
 
"Most sides over the course of history, I think it takes them a couple of goes before they get a crack," Hardwick said.
 
"I was at Hawthorn before it took us two goes before they eventually had a go at the third, so it's a process.
 
"We have a relatively young group, a core group that is really young, our good players … we will continue to add to that and continue to get better."
 
Hardwick was nothing but complimentary regarding the Power.
 
He refused to label the wind as a factor, didn't blame the emotion of last week's win over the Sydney Swans for their own early tardiness, and said Ken Hinkley's men dominated in contests and displayed their blistering ball movement as the Tigers turned it over when they did manage to win it.
 
He said his team played "nowhere near" its potential.
 
And, he said it was clear the Tigers had to improve after their nine-game winning streak was abruptly halted.
 
"The thing about AFL footy … you've got to get in finals to give yourself a chance and that's what our guys have done the last two years and the easy thing to do is dismiss that," he said.
 
"The reality is we had a 12-10 season, we fought back from 3-10, which is an unbelievable scoreline, but the fact of the matter is that once that regular season finishes and the finals start, it's a new season and we've failed.
 
"So, we've got to get better. We know we do. We'll work incredibly hard over summer but so will other sides.
 
"It's a long time before you get there again so our boys are bitterly disappointed, disappointed with our performance in a big game.
 
"You've got to take your chances when they present and we just didn't.
 
"It's just one of those games ... and unfortunately it was on one of the most important occasions for our footy club."
 
Hardwick was loathe to detail what the Tigers needed when it came to the upcoming trade, free agency and draft period.
 
Defender Steven Morris will have shoulder surgery that he had required nearly all season in the coming weeks.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-09-07/hardwick-postmatch

[Chuck17]

Plop plop plop

[(•))(©™]

"It's just one of those games ... and unfortunately it was on one of the most important occasions for our footy club."

[Chuck17]

"It's just one of those games ... and unfortunately it was on one of the most important occasions for our footy club."

We are lucky that we are a better side than last year and with Newman ready to be an on field leader we are ready to progress our good form of this year

[Tigeritis™©®]

Don't the players kick the ball at goal during the warm ups???

It would've been glaringly obvious that the one end had more wind assistance compared to the other end.

It's mind boggling and I don't buy it.

[tony_montana]

I was on the flight home with the team tonight, Dimma, Lade were right behind me and the wife. The assistants were busy chatting and breaking down the game play by play, highlighting the first qtr obviously. Dimma was as stonyfaced as I've seen a bloke.

[🏅Dooks]

"It's just one of those games ... and unfortunately it was on one of the most important occasions for our footy club."

How coincidental and unlucky for us.

FFS what a cop out

[WilliamPowell]

* Morris is incredibly brave. By his own admission, he didn't have his greatest game. He needed a shoulder reconstruction in NAB 3. We've had shoulder surgery booked in for every week we've been going. Terrific competitor is Steve.

"Terrific competitor"? Sorry Dimma it's not enough in finals. Cost us goals again (wasn't alone) by going the bump instead of the tackle or falling over.

This is exactly what frustrates the hell out of me... I've never questioned his courage but for us to get better we can't afford to have blokes who are just "terrific competitors", need to offer ore than that a lot more

As for the shoulder, sums it up really but we don't play favourites at Tigerland 

Just my take, whack away 

[Owl]

nah that was insane when the port player was running into goal and he ...bumps instead of tackles... It did my stuffing head in...