I couldn't find this on the web so I scanned it in....Tigers have to stand the pain By MARK STEVENS
SAT 10 APR 2010, Page 068 AS SURE as there is a premier every year, someone has to finish last.
This year, it's Richmond's turn.
The Tigers tried hard enough against the Bulldogs on Sunday, but their second half was like watching an under-12 team take on the under-16s.
Richmond couldn't get it past the centre. If the Dogs had kicked straight, the margin would have been 100-plus points.
And it won't be the only time the Tigers are forced to push numbers back and spring into damage control this season.
Suddenly, three wins looks a realistic pass mark for new coach Damien Hardwick in his first year.
If Hardwick somehow scrounges out five, he will be a contender for coach of the year honours.
One rival recruiter this week mused that Richmond hasn't even bottomed out yet.
The theory is that Melbourne has found the end of the tunnel and turned back towards the light, but there is still only darkness ahead for the Tigers.
These are desperately tough times, but someone always wins the wooden spoon. When the whack comes you've got to absorb it -- ask St Kilda fans still removing splinters from the 1980s.
That is why it is ridiculous to suggest Richmond deserves special AFL assistance heading into the compromised Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney drafts.
Priority picks based on a win-loss criteria are contentious enough, creating talks of tanking. Why suddenly do we need an discretionary "extraordinary circumstances'' Richmond rule to further compromise the draft?
The AFL is already reviewing Gold Coast compensation rules we had thought were set in stone. The league doesn't need to be perceived as making rules on the run.
Legend Leigh Matthews has good intentions when he suggests uncontracted players at Richmond and Melbourne should be off-limits to the new clubs, but that would be grossly unfair to other clubs. It is not as if the Tigers and Dees haven't had time to prepare.
Talk that the Tigers should be offered priority access to one gun 16-year-old or 17-year-old is also a massive over-reaction.
Only 13 months ago, Kevin Sheedy thought the Tigers could win the flag -- and some believed him after a barnstorming ninth finish in 2008.
It is not as if the Tigers have been trapped in the "bottoming out'' pit forever. The process is only just starting and they need to cop it -- just like Melbourne has.
Finish last this season and Richmond will probably get pick No. 4, even with Gold Coast in the mix.
It is reasonable compensation considering the Tigers already have Dustin Martin (pick No. 3), Tyrone Vickery (No.
, Trent Cotchin (No. 2), Jack Riewoldt (No. 13), Brett Deledio (No. 1) and Richard Tambling (No. 4) running around.
Add the departed Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls (No. 8 ) to that list and the Tigers have had a fair crack at it.
It should turn if Richmond gets another year or two of reasonably early picks. It has to.
It would be embarrassing if the Tigers put their hands out and asked for AFL charity in the form of special draft assistance.
The best things in life are earned. The club, and its supporters, must take the pain now and revel in the satisfaction when the pendulum swings.
Richmond fans have been so resilient. It is an insult to suggest they will lose hope without draft help.
What's a couple more years? At least the Tigers won a flag in 1980.
Rest assured, supporters of Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda would take that.
