Finally, Tigers aim high for 2015 season ... (afl site)

[one-eyed]

Finally, Tigers aim high for 2015 season
Jennifer Phelan 
afl.com.au
December 31, 2014 9:45 PM

RICHMOND players are intent on ensuring the Tigers roar into next season with the same sort of form that saw them earn a surprise finals berth in 2014.

The Tigers' remarkable 2014 has been well documented, with injuries to key players and inconsistent form across the team crippling them early on.

They won just three games to round 14 and slumped to 16th on the ladder, with just the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda beneath them.

But the return of Brett Deledio, Ivan Maric and Alex Rance helped steady them, and as the wins mounted after their round 15 defeat of the Saints, their confidence in their game plan grew.

What followed was an incredible undefeated run of victories that culminated in a thrilling three-point win over the Sydney Swans in round 23 that slotted them into September action.

While their appearance was short-lived, with Port Adelaide easily accounting for them the following week in an elimination clash at Adelaide Oval, the players still took plenty from their run to the finals.

Defender David Astbury wasn't part of it as he worked his way back from yet another knee injury but couldn't help feel the momentum generated by the Tigers' second half of the year.

The 23-year-old said they were now intent on taking that sort of form into the start of next season.

"We're looking to start the season the way we finished those last nine weeks of the home-and-away season and really build on that momentum," Astbury said.

"We obviously got some confidence out of it, and we really don't want to have to win nine straight to get a finals berth.

"We're really looking to make sure we start the season towards the upper end of the ladder and build from there."

The Tigers face Carlton in the season opener on Thursday, April 2 at the MCG.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-12-31/finally-tigers-aim-high

[Phil Mrakov]

Thought it was going to tell us that we're aiming for the flag

[the claw]

injuries to key players is an amusing one.
we certainly struggled without maric, rance and deledio but what have we done to allay this.not a thing not in the short term anyway. thats just 3 players and the season was derailed. we had few injuries again but we did lose a few important ones for periods. the injury gods have been very kind to us over the last 3 or 4 seasons but i suppose if you play bruise free footy you wont get too many injuries.

the only significant player we lost for a significant period last yr was big ivan he missed 9 games. we only lost deledio for 4 and rance for 5.
people will say astbury but for me hes still struggling to truly establish himself and is still very much a development player. if we miss these types we are in strife.

for me it wasnt until ivan came back and anthony miles came into the side that we started to play better.

to aim higher i ask myself what have we done to correct the glaring weaknesses in both immediate depth,needed quality, structure, and areas like sml fwd rebounding medium defenders etc.

we still have hampson god forbid we lose ivan again, we did nothing to address this in fact we cut stephenson.
we lost jackson and bought in hunt imo jacko has done much much more than hunt to date .
lose rance well i suppose we at least have astbury although we had him last yr when rance was out.we also lost every game they played in together.
we lose deledio again who comes in for him a raw kid or a battler..


i also have to ask what has been done in particular with the defensive side to our game. we dont tackle we dont work both ways. when we have tried to address these things we have failed which says to me either the game style/plan is wrong or we just dont have players with the right mindset and fitness  to work both ways. reality is its a bit of both.

to finish i ask what players have we taken that can immediately improve us.  are they going to give more this yr than players we have delisted. the simple honest answer to that is no. so the improvement has to come from players already there, and it has to come from players who arent already performing at a high level and literally carrying the side.
will nothing but internal improvement if it happens mean we improve more than most other teams. we want to hope so.

[Owl]

Has their ever been a headline where a "[team] aims low for [year] season" ?  Maybe Melbourne LOL

[Phil Mrakov]

Jarrad Harbrow says the suns can make the top 4 while everything stays quiet at tigeland

[Yeahright]

Jarrad Harbrow says the suns can make the top 4 while everything stays quiet at tigeland

Nek minnut
"Richmond should shut up and stay out of the paper and let our playing do the talking etc etc"

[Phil Mrakov]

Worrying signs that we don't have a target this year. The target should be top 4 and win the qualifying final