Bridging the gap

[big tone]

For us to really bridge the gap on the top sides next year we need to improve in a few areas which probably means we have to improve the personal in those positions.
For me it's the following

Grigg- wingman (I just think we can do better here, he gets plenty of the footy but I just think someone else could get that same amount of footy but with better foot skills and a harder edge)

Houli- rebounding back (bit unlucky to be here but I'm always concerned about his defending and his hardness) I personally think he could play on a wing or even in second rotation as a midfielder) but again I think we can do better in his position.

A. Edwards- third tall/lead up forward (like the way the kid plays but if we are to improve we have to get someone more damaging, IMO he goes missing too often, and not just at Richmond, he has been like that his whole career. Someone taller, a better mark and more agile when the ball hits the ground would really help our forward structure now with Vickory most likely to play at CHF. He is good at most things but not great at anything, other than kicking at goal)

King and S. Edwards- small forwards (both are best 22 at present but neither play that Eddie Betts, Balentine type of small forward that on their day can kick a bag of 5 or 6 to win you a game. Need another match winner in our forwardline to compliment Jack. Some extra X factor would be massive for our forwardline. At present IMO we are way to predictable down there.

So on paper my best 22 at this stage is

Morris  Chaplin  Grimes
Houli  Rance  Vlastuin
Grigg  Foley  Lids
A. Edwards  Vickory  Martin
King  Jack  Hampson

Maric  Cotch  Jackson

Newman  Ellis  S. Edwards  Conca

So my questions are, who can you see replacing my 'suspect' players ASAP? (If you agree of course) Just remember though, the people you are going to replace them with need to be better NOW, not potentially better. We don't want to make our side any weaker in 2014

Is there anyone else you think we can do better than, currently best 22? And who would you replace them with?

And most importantly is Hardwick strong enough to make the tough call on some of these favourites?

[Dice]

Good post Tone. Couldn't agree more on the players you've named and the reasons you've named them.
 I think Kingy brings a bit more to the team than he gets credit for though. However he's starting to age and get a battered body.
I'm banking on the natural progression of the kids we've had at the club for a couple of years. They need to step up and force their way in.
 I guess the club is thinking the same ? Only reason I can see for them not drafting any kids in the recent draft ?
 Finally , as you touched on Tone , Dimma has to stop playing favorites if we're to improve. I was a little concerned to hear Hampson interviewed saying he'd been promised a senior game EVERY week. Same thing Houli and Grigg said when we recruited them. It's been proven they were correct. They are beyond relegation it seems.

[Judge Roughneck]

So my questions are, who can you see replacing my 'suspect' players ASAP? (If you agree of course) Just remember though, the people you are going to replace them with need to be better NOW, not potentially better. We don't want to make our side any weaker in 2014

Is there anyone else you think we can do better than, currently best 22? And who would you replace them with?

If hardhat plays another season of his favorite only policy the development in the younger players will alarmingly stagnant

Can players achieve their potential by playing in the 2's? Is it every worth player a lesser player in the senior side ahead of a seemingly superior player for the sake of development and potential?

To give an example Grigg might be a better player than Lennon now, but if it were up to me I would choose Lennon in a heartbeat.

[WilliamPowell]

And most importantly is Hardwick strong enough to make the tough call on some of these favourites?

Great post big tone

For mine the above is the biggest question of all and to be honest I am not sure he will be until it's too late.

[Gigantor]

I think Dimma showed his intentions on Grigg at least once this past season when he relegated him to substitute.i think that was a clear message to him ..get your ass into gear.
As for Houli his defensive work was vastly improved on past seasons.My major knock on him currently is that he's one sided

[Diocletian]

King brings intangible qualities to the side. Having said that, this alone shouldn't guarantee his spot. Coming down the other side of the mountain rapidly.

Houli's valuable when things are going well but goes to water when they are not. Panic merchant, poor defensively, one-sided.

Grigg was a minor upgrade on McMahon, although it could be argued that Jordy was a better kick.. Both are soft, one way runners, defensively useless and massive downhill skiiers. Grigg plays his "role" a little too well for mine. Never have I witnesed a player, not McMahon or even Tambling, actually run shoulder to shoulder with an opponent in possession and not only make no effort to tackle him, but actually point to a teammate further away to cover his Siamese Twin. Also far too one-sided, and his delivery into our foward line is atrocious and a leading culprit in our poor ratio of conversion from fwd entries. Urgent upgrade required IMO.

What to do with Shank Edwards - the rare one step from elite/one step from a hack player? As I've said numerous times - ideal sub. He has strengths and some sublime skills but they are far outweighed by his flaws. Putting him up fresh against a tiring opposition should at least restore the balance somewhat. Of course you can't use the same bloke as a sub every game, so the dilemna of where to play him for full games or if at all remains. Has strengths & weaknesses that suit & undermine him both as a mid or a foward.

And most importantly is Hardwick strong enough to make the tough call on some of these favourites?

Great post big tone

For mine the above is the biggest question of all and to be honest I am not sure he will be until it's too late.

This is also one of my biggest concerns regarding Hardwick.

[bojangles17]

Smashing the two grand finalists tell me we sure are good enough. We need to adopt a more horses for courses approach to other sides   Some weeks we will need 2 rucks ...finding that mid size forward that can conjure something from nothing like an illusionist is another important dimension.

We have gone along way toward addressing those two areas in order for RFC to take a giant step forward in 2014

[yellowandback]

Agree with most posts here and  to the OP. - much more concise analysis of our list gaps than some others so called experts on this forum 

There are some young fellas who might take the leap this pre season to force some of the issues mentioned in your post BT.

I'm sure Hardwick will see the light - he has assistants around him who have been part of premiership teams that had to sacrifice stalwarts of their clubs to make way for better talent - Hardwick actually saw it himself.

I wouldn't under estimate his ability to make the tough calls as our list improves and young talent puts pressure on others in our starting 18.

[tony_montana]

Good post BT. Agree with most of what you've said. The main thing I disagree on is Houli, personally think he's severely underrated by most tiger supporters, I notice a marked difference in our drive when he doesn't play - and his defending has improved a lot(although still needs to get better).

Of the side you posted - I'd make one change, actually 2.

Lennon in - A.Edwards out. If not round 1 then after a few weeks ala Vlastuin this season. I think with Jack, Vicks and hampson there we have enough talls(A.edwards plays taller than his height suggests usually as a leading fwd), Lennon can play tall if required(strong mark) and probably already has better field footskills than A.Edwards.

The other change is Arnott in - newman out. Probably not a popular call but personally feel Newman is past it and I was quite impressed with Arnott this season.

Would love to see Griffiths, Helbig and batchelor all pushing for genuine starting spots week in week out and mcbean and McIntosh to play some games and  show some exciting development. If Gordon and Lloyd can show anything and force their way in it will be a bonus.

Unfortunately Pettard will no doubt be an automatic inclusion in the best squad.

[WilliamPowell]

I think Dimma showed his intentions on Grigg at least once this past season when he relegated him to substitute.i think that was a clear message to him ..get your ass into gear.

I don't see starting Grigg as the sub as sending a message. A number of players had been sub during the course of the year. One being Ellis who is a Dimma favourite started as a sub a few times. So I am not quite sure it's a message at all.

I think finally dropping Foley (who's form had been average) for the final was sending a message.

But as I said to a group of footy mates the other week when we were talking about Hampson, no matter how poor their form we don't seem to drop players we've traded for, hence why I expect Hampson (unless injured) to play every game in 2014.

[mightytiges]

The forward line, particularly our lack of dangerous quality small forwards, was our achilles' heel last year. Clearly, the club recognised this was a problem given our recruiting over the offseason, although the newbies are unknowns at AFL level at this stage. While Kingy (who IMO will retire at the end of this year) and Titch aren't the answer, it's too early to tell if any of the newbies are better replacements. You'd expect Lennon, as a first rounder, to come into the side early on as a HFF/FP but it's a tough ask to expect a first year kid to solve our poor ground level play and lack of crumbing goals in the forward line. McDonough is another I'm hoping will improve and start showing his ability up forward around the goals at AFL level. McBean is the tall forward option we obviously hope isn't affected by his injury to finally make his debut this year and take over from Az Edwards.

The other areas we need to improve are midfield depth, defensive structure and fitness. There are times in certain games when we go to sleep and the opposition gets a run-on of many consecutive centre clearances for 10 mins or more which results in a quick 4-5 goals against us. Even in some of our wins, it turns what should be solid comfortable win into one we have to fight for late in games. While I believe the natural development of our list with Conca, Ellis and Flossy building up their fitness and spending greater time in the centre rotation will help in that regard, I just don't put down to inexperience the elim final loss and others where we've been run over or chased down in the second half of games. We were physically shot as a team by the 3rd qtr. Peter Burge admitted he only had the team do 80% of his program last preseason as it was his first year in charge as our fitness and condition coordinator. He's said he's upping that to the full program this preseason so hopefully that helps on the fitness front in the second half of key games this year.

One last thing which the Club also acknowledges is we can't have Ivan doing the majority of the ruckwork every game. Whether we think Hampson is a spud or not, he was poached for this purpose. I still reckon TV will remain a significant part of the ruck rotation even though Dimma and co. have said they want him playing as a key forward.

[Stripes]

I agree with you here MT. Hampson and Maric in particular will need a great deal of coaching over the preseason on their contested marking (this is a major strength of Hampson though) and goal kicking (big focus for both). Also their leading and coordination with the other forwards will be crucial. I worry they will just try and kick it long to these two guys and we will become to one dimensional. If they can begin more at the 40m mark and push up the ground to act as link players I think this will work better. Ivans field kicking is surprisingly accurate.

Arnot could be valuable inclusion into the center if he can build up and tank and defensive mindset. He would be a tough opponent even if his role was to purely buffet and block. Gordan and Lloyd will be more important to our 2014 mid/forward depth than some recognize as yet. They were brought in the team to make an immediate impact so expect them to see more game time initially than Lennon.

I'm very interested to see what roles our new trades take next year because they will be given every opportunity early.

[Penelope]

I think Dimma showed his intentions on Grigg at least once this past season when he relegated him to substitute.i think that was a clear message to him ..get your ass into gear.

I don't see starting Grigg as the sub as sending a message. A number of players had been sub during the course of the year. One being Ellis who is a Dimma favourite started as a sub a few times. So I am not quite sure it's a message at all.

I think finally dropping Foley (who's form had been average) for the final was sending a message.

But as I said to a group of footy mates the other week when we were talking about Hampson, no matter how poor their form we don't seem to drop players we've traded for, hence why I expect Hampson (unless injured) to play every game in 2014.

pretty sure hardwick said around the time that grigg was being used as a sub was that he and grigg knew he could be be playing better, or words to that effect.

Using ellis as a sub would have been as much about fatigue management as anything, something not required for grigg, which was a large part of why we got him.

he was made sub because he was playing poorly, which is sending a message.

[Gigantor]

Would love to know from anyone who has followed the pre season closely how Nathan is going.I have always rated him as absolutely crucial to us being a top side,challenging for the cup.
However his form late last season wasn't good,so I think this pre season is vital for him ,giving him a good fitness base something he certainly didn't have this past season

[Chuck17]

Sadly he won't get back to his best