We dont deserve Round 1 vs Carlton as an Opening Match

[Hellenic Tiger]

I don't buy into the play a soft target in round 1. Why? So we can then hype ourselves up and then in rd 4 when we play the filth or the scums or Hawthorn we cop a similar type of scoreline and then say no wonder we get no blockbusters and we will never learn and we will never succeed.

I've said it before hark back to the day after our round 1 loss in 2009. Now hark back to when Hardwick got the job. If we think for a second and yes I have been guilty of this too we all knew the magnitude of his job.

Last night merely showed how far we still have to go. After 30 years we are just sick of waiting and our responses are justing getting more and more desperate thinking our time will never come.

Lets say this. We finish 8th this year which will be an achievement and play Carlton or Sydney and get flogged by 10 goals are we worse off for making the finals in this developmental stage, because we lose these big games or are we better off for the experience and the development of our players and game plan throughout the season where the reality and clinical nature of finals will expose our lesser tier players for the duds we are and there the turnover of players since Hardwick took over goes to about 30-40?

[Captain__Blood]

People may not like this but we DO NOT DESERVE to Open the season against Carlton in Round 1. The AFL should take it off us. The club may like the money from the gate etc. but we dont deserve this fixture.

We are still a rabble. No pride, no commitment to success, nothing. When we become a half competent side then maybe it should happen but once again the club has failed on the big stage and the club and its supporters have been ridiculed by an arch enemy.

It makes me sick. The players should either grow some balls or stuff off!

10flogs ---> Emo! 

[Francois Jackson]

I cant believe so many people want to be molly coddled.

MT hit the nail on the head, otherwise we as well ask to be demoted to the VFL so we can play weak sides every week.

If we want any change to early season, its to ask to play sides that will give us a good work out in the pre season. A half strength geelong and then GWS turns out to be not such an ideal preparation for the real stuff

you think we lost to the scum because of our build up to Rd 1. Well what about the scum they could hardly beat the Na Na Goon seconds yet still managed to smash up by 7 goals.

Il tell you something for free we lost not because of our build up or it was because we are not good enough. Our top players went missing(Foley/Cotch aside)and our bottom 6 were a joke. Jack was selfish as always. Seems sometimes the blokes only cares about his own numbers.

If we continue to play your Tambling aka Edwards/Jackson types then we we will get smashed each and every time.

If you want to look at it sensibly, carlton had games against sides that were competitive. we won our last two games easily against a side that didn't give an eff and one that is unable to apply or absorb pressure for any length of time. we had no where near the pressure put on us in either of those games that carlton did last night. If you think that is an ideal preparation you are mad.

look at the difference in the way carlton handled the pressure we put on them. they always managed to get the ball out to someone clear, where as we fumbled, made poor decisions and poorly executed disposal due to the pressure put on us.

that comes down to a number of factors, experience being a major one, but can you say, honestly and seriously, that our last two pre season games were a good preparation to handle the pressure carlton applied?

Al if you think the Blues were really trying in the NAB cup then you are kidding yourself.

Like the Cats they couldnt care less using it as a tool to try different things.

Take the Swans as another example. Under Roos they were smashed in almost every pre season game yet season proper always came to play. NAB cup is an absolute joke as is our traditional Rd 1 match.

Supporters crap on about how much money it makes the club well again i hate to tell you we would make equal to if not more if we played the Blues in say Rd 3/4 after being 2/2 or 3/1.

Because of our loss against the Blues we will now get less numbers at the Pies game than if we say played and beaten a Port or a Bummers. FACT!!

We don't need it and for once i agree with Andy the greek. We don't deserve the big stage that honour should go to the top teams.

[one-eyed]

Another dose of Blues for Tigers
Jake Niall
The Age
March 31, 2012


DOES Richmond really need to play Carlton in the season's first mega-match?

The marketing and finance department, doubtless, would say it does, its case supported by 78,000 on Thursday night. The football department, whatever it thinks, has to accept the challenge.

But the fans might have misgivings. Carlton has been much better than Richmond over the period in which this fixture was established and therein lies the problem. As ex-Tiger assistant coach and North player David King jested at the SEN season launch, for Richmond fans, there was ''only 14 more sleeps before your season ends''. King, indeed, advocates the Tigers playing an interstate team in round one here, rather than risking round-one deflation.

Richmond's season did seem to end in 2009, when the pre-season hot-air balloon - greatly inflated by the arrival of Ben Cousins - was pricked within 15 minutes. By the end of that match, media crosshairs were already trained on Terry Wallace. In Damien Hardwick's first game in 2010, Tiger hopes were likewise dashed early.

Last year was more encouraging - the Tigers led at three-quarter-time before getting overrun. This year, they pushed the Blues for three quarters, without ever seeming capable of winning. A relatively credible performance was undone with one dismal quarter and by some awful blunders, especially in defence. Still, it is only round one, and any premature assessment of Richmond should be tempered by the fact it was playing a very capable premiership contender. The Blues had issues in their back line, due to the absence of Michael Jamison and Nick Duigan, but it was easy to forget (as some of us did) who was playing.

These included a fully recovered Matthew Kreuzer, a springy Jarrad Waite, the electrifying Chris Yarran, slick Eddie Betts, the super midfield partnership of Chris Judd and Marc Murphy, Kade Simpson, Heath Scotland, blue-collar toiler Andrew Carrazzo and, perhaps most crucially, Bryce Gibbs.

Always important, Gibbs becomes critical when the Blues have a hole somewhere, since he is the one gun who can play in all parts of the ground.

Like Luke Hodge, he's devastating when loose behind the ball.

Brett Ratten, knowing he had a hole in defence, put Gibbs back as the ''plus one'' from the first bounce. This seemed to calm the Carlton defence. Richmond, which placed Chris Newman in the same role, calculated that having Gibbs loose was preferable to having an extra Blue around the stoppages.

Whether it was Gibbs or someone else, Carlton protected Lachie Henderson from one-out contests with Jack Riewoldt for much of the night; Riewoldt somehow scrounged four goals, but wasn't as potent as he was in the same game 12 months ago. And he had no foil - Tyrone Vickery was horrendous. Carlton swingman Bret Thornton said Henderson had performed well, despite Riewoldt's four majors.

Hardwick was disappointed with the final-quarter fade-out, which was attributed to losing the contested ball (which the Tigers had led to this stage) by 19 for the term.

''The last quarter, to go down by 19, was poor and those 50-50 contests if you don't win them, they go the other way and they score.''

Carlton's advantage in the contests was apparent late, as the Tigers tired. In a more telling sign of their maturation, the Blues punished Richmond's blunders - dropped marks at each end, fumbles by Bachar Houli and Jayden Post in defence and various poor kicks.

''We worked really hard to get back into the game, then those basic mistakes … they really kill you,'' said Hardwick.

''And they're really deflating. We've just got to eradicate those.''

Richmond skipper Newman used the same word - ''deflating'' - when explaining what happened when Yarran weaved around Tigers on the boundary and threaded the goal of the evening in the final quarter.

Deflation. It's what happens when Richmond is built up in pre-season and then gets the Blues.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/another-dose-of-blues-for-tigers-20120330-1w3t4.html#ixzz1qcj5

[RollsRoyce]

Hey OWL....Go and gargle a grenade! I should be able to leave a game without being subjected to the hey, hey hey goodbye song from a bunch of cro-magnons whose mob serially rort the salary cap.

[Penelope]

I cant believe so many people want to be molly coddled.

MT hit the nail on the head, otherwise we as well ask to be demoted to the VFL so we can play weak sides every week.

If we want any change to early season, its to ask to play sides that will give us a good work out in the pre season. A half strength geelong and then GWS turns out to be not such an ideal preparation for the real stuff

you think we lost to the scum because of our build up to Rd 1. Well what about the scum they could hardly beat the Na Na Goon seconds yet still managed to smash up by 7 goals.

Il tell you something for free we lost not because of our build up or it was because we are not good enough. Our top players went missing(Foley/Cotch aside)and our bottom 6 were a joke. Jack was selfish as always. Seems sometimes the blokes only cares about his own numbers.

If we continue to play your Tambling aka Edwards/Jackson types then we we will get smashed each and every time.

If you want to look at it sensibly, carlton had games against sides that were competitive. we won our last two games easily against a side that didn't give an eff and one that is unable to apply or absorb pressure for any length of time. we had no where near the pressure put on us in either of those games that carlton did last night. If you think that is an ideal preparation you are mad.

look at the difference in the way carlton handled the pressure we put on them. they always managed to get the ball out to someone clear, where as we fumbled, made poor decisions and poorly executed disposal due to the pressure put on us.

that comes down to a number of factors, experience being a major one, but can you say, honestly and seriously, that our last two pre season games were a good preparation to handle the pressure carlton applied?

Al if you think the Blues were really trying in the NAB cup then you are kidding yourself.

Like the Cats they couldnt care less using it as a tool to try different things.

Take the Swans as another example. Under Roos they were smashed in almost every pre season game yet season proper always came to play. NAB cup is an absolute joke as is our traditional Rd 1 match.

Supporters crap on about how much money it makes the club well again i hate to tell you we would make equal to if not more if we played the Blues in say Rd 3/4 after being 2/2 or 3/1.

Because of our loss against the Blues we will now get less numbers at the Pies game than if we say played and beaten a Port or a Bummers. FACT!!

We don't need it and for once i agree with Andy the greek. We don't deserve the big stage that honour should go to the top teams.

are your comprehension skills really that bad, or do you deliberately twist things a la jackstar just for the sake of argument? i never said anything about how hard carlton tried in the Knob cup

Nothing in this post has anything do do with what i said and is so far removed from my original post its bizarre.

[Penelope]

Hey OWL....Go and gargle a grenade! I should be able to leave a game without being subjected to the hey, hey hey goodbye song from a bunch of cro-magnons whose mob serially rort the salary cap.

Rolls are you talking about leaving early, or after the game has finished?

I give it to the opposition when they leave early so if i was to do the same i would expect it in return. it's easily avoided though........

for me there is nothing sweeter than seeing a stream of black and white leaving before the final siren has blown and it just must be accompanied by a song of "bye, bye, magpie", and there is no way in hell i will give them the satisfaction of being able to return the favour.

[bojangles17]

People may not like this but we DO NOT DESERVE to Open the season against Carlton in Round 1. The AFL should take it off us. The club may like the money from the gate etc. but we dont deserve this fixture.

We are still a rabble. No pride, no commitment to success, nothing. When we become a half competent side then maybe it should happen but once again the club has failed on the big stage and the club and its supporters have been ridiculed by an arch enemy.

It makes me sick. The players should either grow some balls or stuff off!

thats a nuff nuff comment, on what basis dont we deserve it, umm errr coz vickers doesnt hold his marks. Now you listen and listen good , there were 78,000 people there on the edge of their seat for 80% of the game...thats whatya call a BLOCKBUSTER. if it were up to the nuffys theyd shchedule demons v freo first up or some such crap, but they probably dont wanna hear it

[Owl]

Hey OWL....Go and gargle a grenade! I should be able to leave a game without being subjected to the hey, hey hey goodbye song from a bunch of cro-magnons whose mob serially rort the salary cap.

Your post just happened to pop before I got mine out but nonetheless, why let a bunch of DH's get you upset?  Water off a ducks back.  If that is the worst thing that happens to me this year, I will have a pretty good year.  The funniest thing is they had to play their hearts out for most of the game to get on top of us and we were 12th last year they are supposed to be premiership contenders, pigs ahhhhs.  They just were not that good and we didn't play to our best, take heart.

[Go Richo 12]

Hey OWL....Go and gargle a grenade! I should be able to leave a game without being subjected to the hey, hey hey goodbye song from a bunch of cro-magnons whose mob serially rort the salary cap.

Rolls are you talking about leaving early, or after the game has finished?

I give it to the opposition when they leave early so if i was to do the same i would expect it in return. it's easily avoided though........

for me there is nothing sweeter than seeing a stream of black and white leaving before the final siren has blown and it just must be accompanied by a song of "bye, bye, magpie", and there is no way in hell i will give them the satisfaction of being able to return the favour.

I admit that i leave early when a loss is immenent. I have a three and half hour drive to get home,  usually have the kids, and you can add another half hour just getting out of the car park.

[Penelope]

understand all those things GR, i have left a couple of games out at waverly early for that reason myself, but leaving early brings satisfaction and an opportunity to gloat for the opposition. sometimes you give it, and sometimes you take it

[Owl]

exactly, don't tell me we aren't gonna give them the full treatment come their turn.

[Penelope]

with interest 

[Willy]

but this time its personal....

so we're gonna lynch a few Carlton mums for good measure.

[Go Richo 12]

understand all those things GR, i have left a couple of games out at waverly early for that reason myself, but leaving early brings satisfaction and an opportunity to gloat for the opposition. sometimes you give it, and sometimes you take it

I know, it pains me to to do it!