Pass mark next year?

[tony_montana]

we need to find out that we can add another 5-6 players to our longterm plans, they dont have to be champion players, just solid afl level footballers... - like we did this season with Vickery, Rance, Conca, Batchelor, Houli, Nahas and Grigg. We still have too many question marks on too many players from young players still developing and downright duds like Jackson, White, Farmer, McGuance, Thursfield, Connors, Moore(retiring?), Edwards, Nason, Graham, Browne for me to mark us on pure win loss.

If we can get say Helbig, Derickx, Astbury, Griff as well as a couple of draftees and F/S Morris to step up and show, like the group I mentioned earlier, that they are long term players for this club then I will consider it a success. Add to that a strong draft next season and then I say we have enough squad quality to talk serious turkey re finals campaigns for 2013 onwards. Right now we dont have the cattle, we are not ready yet. Will need to have a lot of luck to make it - The club made a mistake publicly stating they are going for finals next year imo

[Penelope]

No excuses, sick of excuses - Finals is a pass anything less FAIL.
Time to stand up

Would an injury run like freo experienced this year be a valid reason/excuse?

As i've asked jackstar, without ever getting an answer, what is the difference between a reason and an excuse?

[Him]

No excuses, sick of excuses - Finals is a pass anything less FAIL.
Time to stand up

Would an injury run like freo experienced this year be a valid reason/excuse?

As i've asked jackstar, without ever getting an answer, what is the difference between a reason and an excuse?

a reason is the logical set of events that explains why something has happened
 
an excuse is a reason used to shift blame onto someone else
 
 

[Penelope]

thanks 

[MADTIGER2010]

Not so dumb Mad one.

Hardwick has shown some degree of ability in developing players, but has yet to show tactical nous.

If the Tigers have a poor season or just miss finals due to a couple of games having been out coached, the patience of the Richmond faithful will be sorely tested, and Malthouse will loom as the holy grail.

Hardwick has done a great job. The game plan will work completely when then list is 100% turned over and ready to play the game plan. His chances of getting sacked next year are 0.0000000000000000000001%.

[Sabretooth]

Can I put a dollar on the odds you're offering there? 

Ah the much lauded game plane, can you tell me what it is?
From what I saw the style of play changed from week to week and what we started with, had metamorphed into something quite different by the end of the year.

[Dubstep Dookie]

Pass mark?

Probably a minimum of 11 wins - keep the curve heading upwards. I guess that means finals most years. 

[cub]

No excuses, sick of excuses - Finals is a pass anything less FAIL.
Time to stand up

Would an injury run like freo experienced this year be a valid reason/excuse?

Yes - But it wont happen, besides it wont take near as much with us for us to come back really quick.
Major injuries to 1 or 2 keys aside - No excuses.

[Penelope]

Yeah, i cant see anything besides that.

[TigerLand]

I couldn't care less where we finish next year.

A pass mark is done with list management.

If we make the hard decisions on Jackson, Edwards and co and bring in some untried kids I'd rather 1 more year of development then trying a finals tilt with what we have. Our list isn't good enough yet.

Pushing for finals would be a disaster for mine. Espeially considering our premiership window will compete with Melbourne, GC and GWS. Would be a disaster to finish middle of the road like an Essendon with average players Edwards and Jackson.

By all means if we make these decisions and bring in some young state talent and draft well and guys like Conca, Helbig, Astbury, Post improve sky is the limit.

I don't want to hold onto average players and finish middle of the road maybe pinch 7th or 8th spot, thats the limit of the current list IMO.

[Dubstep Dookie]

Problem is it's a bad year for a clean out, there's just too much chaff in the wheat at Tigerland. Draft prospects after our first or second pick are going to be a massive roll of the dice.

I reckon we'll only turnover 4-5 from our regular list.

[Hellenic Tiger]

The pass mark this year is as much for the coach as it is for the team.
Dimma needs to continue to draft the kids and play the kids. No quick fixes and no overpaying from trades from our behalf.
Furthermore kids retained on the list or those who showed improvement to keep on improving.
We had the 15th place finish last year the 12th place finish this year and based on who we beat and the expected slide from some sides next year we need to aim for at least 7th or 8th place finish.

[Smokey]

got nothing to do with bagging our players or bagging the coach.

we are a side capable of matching it with any team that finished between 6-18. The bar has been raised since we have beaten the sides we have and finished where we finished.

Those are the facts.

Like i said unless its injury related finals or bust. If Essendon can finish in the 8 with the likes of Hille, Ryder and Davey then we can with the likes of Jack, Dusty Cotch and Lids.

For too long we have accepted finishing outside the to because thats whats accepted at our club but when you see teams we can beat like Bummers, Sydney all playing off in finals well the equation is pretty simple.

Finals 2012

Good post Daniel, fully agree.   

[tigtuff12]

Too many variables to be honest

A injury free run and you can say finals are a possibility.

Get a few injuries especially to key players and with our lack of depth things can turn to poop pretty quickly

^ agree - big if's on where we'll finish inc Ben G, Astbury, Grimes, Moore etc staying on the park...continued development of the guys who saw action this year should help push us up a bit but think we're bottom rungs of 8 - 12 again with another 12 month of "game time into young blokes"...especially considering we need to clean out a few, draft/trade for a few & continue the mass turn over from the last 24months...think it's hard to put a pass mark on next year without seeing how hard CC & BH are willing to prune the list & be aggressive in the trade

[Dubstep Dookie]

More I think about it the more Benny G looks like the injured prophecy coming true