Richmond vs Gold Coast @ Metricon - Round 1, 2014

[tony_montana]

I agree Dice, we didn't handle the conditions anywhere near as well as them, watching the telecast was pretty obvious it was a slippery ball -  not using it as an out, just a very poor reflection on our players and coaches preparation.

[Smokey]

I agree Dice, we didn't handle the conditions anywhere near as well as them, watching the telecast was pretty obvious it was a slippery ball -  not using it as an out, just a very poor reflection on our players and coaches preparation.

Why was it only slippery to one side?  Lol at those using it as any sort of excuse, regardless of how minor.  Would have been just as much dew in Sydney or Melbourne on the Friday night yet if we had played the game in either of those 2 cities and played like we did we would have had the same outcome but no-one would be even hinting at the conditions as an excuse.

[julzqld]

I was there last night, 2 rows from the fence and it was clearly damp.

I walked across the training ground right next door after the game and the surface was as wet as having 10mm of rain.

Also heard McKenna somewhere say he felt games early in the season hold a significant home advantage for them and the GC member next to me said the Suns have been training under lights at least once per week for a month.

Mind you, most of that indicates to me a lack of preparation from our coaching staff.

[Smokey]

Coz they handled the humid slippery conditions better than we did.

Your opinion, I don't agree.  They handled the game better than we did.  Wasn't any more humid or slippery than Melbourne or Sydney on any given day at this time of the year.

The temperature has nothing to do with it !

Um, yeah it does.  When linked to the moisture content in the air and prevailing wind it has a direct bearing on the level of human comfort and amount of moisture on the ground.

Like I said , they just handled the conditions better , and at no stage have I ever blamed the conditions for the loss. They played better than we did on the night.

I didn't say you did blame the conditions but you have just used them as an excuse, if only partially and again, I completely disagree with that.  They encountered nothing more condition-wise last night than they potentially would have in Melbourne or Sydney yet because it was on the Gold Coast then it has become convenient for many to put that up as one of the reasons we lost.

That's just total crap

Why?  What facet of the game do you think we applied ourselves better than them?

[Dice]

Why was it only slippery to one side?  Lol at those using it as any sort of excuse, regardless of how minor.  Would have been just as much dew in Sydney or Melbourne on the Friday night

  NO !! Not sure you get it ?  You need get out of your mum's basement occasionally Smoko

[tony_montana]

I agree Dice, we didn't handle the conditions anywhere near as well as them, watching the telecast was pretty obvious it was a slippery ball -  not using it as an out, just a very poor reflection on our players and coaches preparation.

Why was it only slippery to one side?  Lol at those using it as any sort of excuse, regardless of how minor.  Would have been just as much dew in Sydney or Melbourne on the Friday night yet if we had played the game in either of those 2 cities and played like we did we would have had the same outcome but no-one would be even hinting at the conditions as an excuse.

Yes we would, just like we did after the game in darwin a few years ago, Port handled the ball infinetly better than we did that night, but going by your arguments here, "Why was it only slippery for one side?"  I don't get your logic smokey..

why is it so hard for you to accept that one team can handle conditions better? It was slippery for both, but one side handled it significantly better. Its not an excuse, its just how it is and Im dirty on them about it amongst other things.

[julzqld]

I was there last night, 2 rows from the fence and it was clearly damp.

I walked across the training ground right next door after the game and the surface was as wet as having 10mm of rain.

Also heard McKenna somewhere say he felt games early in the season hold a significant home advantage for them and the GC member next to me said the Suns have been training under lights at least once per week for a month.

Mind you, most of that indicates to me a lack of preparation from our coaching staff.

same. I sat right on the boundary on the wing. It was a warm night but can't say I noticed a breeze - would have been mild if there was one but my friend feels the humidity & was sweating like a pig. GC are used to these conditions & train in them so of course they are going to have that advantage over Melb teams

[(•))(©™]

WTF?!

Using conditions as an excuse is as pathetic as their performances.

Little babies can only play indoors. LMAO.

FFS,

[Diocletian]

Yes it might hold some merit if:

It wasn't still only March and it's humid everystuffingwhere.

It's only round one and they've just come off 4 months of summer training and 3 practice matches -4 if you include intraclub- in similar conditions.

They weren't stuffing highly paid stuffing professionals whose whole lives are structured around playing the sport at the highest level.

[TigerLand]

The game was clearly played in conditions that weren't dry.

If you want to call it an excuse or not, our coaching staff didn't prepare the team well enough or the players weren't smart enough compared to GC. Mix that the many indicators we under performed in and that's why we lost.

How else can you analyse a loss then not look for the reasons why we weren't good enough?

[one-eyed]

A 1983 cartoon that sums up our feelings after Saturday night's loss ...


http://instagram.com/p/k04LOVzJaJ/#

[WilliamPowell]

Nothing to do with what your used to - the conditions had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of that game.

Absolutely agree with you Smokey we were crap, and above the shoulders not switched on at all

Just repeating what people from Melbourne who went up there said about the weather. They felt it was humid and oppressive

And they didn't use it as an excuse, thing that stood out to them during the game was how slow and reactionary we were, where as the Suns the speed of the Suns was sensational

got it in one.

WP your friends are looking for excuses and reasons

Nope see above

Mind you, most of that indicates to me a lack of preparation from our coaching staff.

Bingo

Bingo x 2

reckon our coaches & fitness people got it wrong. We trained at Metricon on Friday at 2.30pm in the afternoon. Why? Surely if you are playing at night then you would make sure you train at the venue in as close to the conditions you are going to be playing in; in this case train under lights. As for our team selections well 

[SCHammo]

Interesting comment on Tyronne this morning from Big bad barry hall saying he was good... clearly I must have been at the wrong game on Saturday night or barry was taking the mickey out of him.... third qrt he had about 3 opportunites to kick goals close to home but stuffed them all up from two kicks over his body to one were he couldn't even bend over.... People on here are saying weather conditons at the end of the day there elite athletes getting paid top dollar they should be able to handle any weather.... no different to freo and eagles when they play at Etihad no roofs in WA????? We just lacked run in the end to our credit I was surprised we got in front in the last.

I would also like to add Cotchin single handerlky nearly got us there not many games he gets 38 and we lose, hampson was good in that last qrt to... Oh well carlton in 2 weeks someone has to be 0-2 and lets hope its not us

[Smokey]

Audacity of Hype

Sunday, March 16, 2014
Opening Night Blues
Nemesis: the escapable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall.

Thank (deity of your choice) that we snuck a win against the Gold Coast last year because based on what we just saw; it could be a very long time between drinks.

Losing happens, Richmond supporters know that better that most. We also know that first round losses get weighted more despite the fact there is no difference between a round one loss and a round 17. Generally when we crap the bed in round one we only need to get through an extra Friday, Saturday and Sunday but this time around it’s an extra week before possible redemption. Joy.

But, there were more than a few things to be concerned about last night. Despite all the talk about working on the defensive side of our game, we let a bunch of would be university students put two four goals bursts on us in a 22 goal game, thanks for coming. Our forward line looked as if they’d just met for a social match, rather than just completed a four-month pre-season. And a good proportion of our midfield had that ‘it’s getting hard now, I’ll let Cotchin handle things’ look about them in the first half of the last quarter.

We are supposed to be a couple of years ahead of Gold Coast yet, at times, it looked as if they were Blood Sugar Sex Magik and we were Stadium Arcadium. Don’t even try to go the ‘they’ve been handed so many first round picks’ approach, we’ve burned more than our fair share of first round picks over the journey and you can’t dump a team in a non-footy market and have them perform like Frawley era Richmond for the first decade.

In the first quarter we looked miles off it, other than Vlastuin showing why we are all madly in love with him, they wanted it more, got to it quicker and used it smarter. Astbury, who got better as the night went on, put in a couple of contests that were reminiscent of round one Jayden Post before we never saw nor heard of him again.

We managed to steady the contest without really taking control. A couple of chases by big blokes, tackles by Matt Thomas and a bit of tempo footy rather than bombing it to the top of the square meant Jaegar O’Meara couldn’t be sublime whenever he felt like it. But despite more or less controlling the game throughout the second and third quarters, we only kicked three goals to their two.

Their last quarter burst showed that we still have a very, very long way to go. Gaz got going and because he’s a winner and we aren’t, it was all over. Tom Lynch will be a fine player one day but he shouldn’t be doing what he did to Rance and when, given their rotations, we needed someone fresh to run circles around them, Foley showed why we didn’t play him against Carlton in the finals.

After a month of hearing from the club just how dominant Ty Vickery was going to be, he put in a game that Jack Watts would have been ashamed of.

Interestingly, after a rather controlled summer where we’d managed to keep a lid on expectations (thanks North), Hardwick made the extraordinary mistake of publicly putting a measure on Ty’s season. Granted, he should kick 40 goals but you don’t say that. Can you imagine Chris Scott or Alistair Clarkson coming out this week and making such a statement about Hawkins or Gunston just before their round one game?

Vickery’s game stood out the most but he had plenty of mates, Jack, Rance, Chaplin, Ellis and Griffiths all had games that I’m guessing like to hand back.

Leadership groups are all the rage but right now out on field leadership group is a sole proprietor by the name of Cotchin. We need to find blokes within our list who can give him a hand when things aren’t going our way. And I know we are supposed to think that Brett Deledio is the hardest marked man in football but his petulant hoofing the ball away was the reason nobody outside of Punt Road thinks twice about him when compiling ‘best of’ lists, despite how many interviews and podcasts we do in his defence. Lids’ time is now, he should be in the top ten of those lists, and 2014 is very much ‘put up or shut up’.

There were a few good things to come out of it: Hampson’s tap ruck work was the best I’ve seen at Richmond since was the best since I’ve seen at Richmond, McDonough is going to be a very good player, Matt Thomas will do plenty of heavy lifting during the next couple of years and Cotchin was back to the 2012 model.

They’ve got a week and half to find out what the best way to convert inside 50’s into goals is and Hardwick has a decent track record of successfully making tweaks between games.

We have too good a list now to be writing off performances like that as a ‘bad night’ and Hardwick’s post-match comments suggest he wont publicly be making excuses for losses this year.

http://rfcramble.blogspot.com.au/

[gerkin greg]

How bad are the Gold Coast? 3 goal win at home to Richmond LMAO

Pressure on McKenna