Garry Lyon and MMM go to town on our leadership group. He also repeated a lot of this on Footy Classified.
AUDIO:
https://soundcloud.com/triple-m-footy/wolf-richmond-leaders-failedSummary* It as an ‘unbelievable fall from grace’ for the Tigers and Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Ivan Maric and Troy Chaplin failed in their duties as the club’s leaders.
* Was that first half an artificial generation or was it real? Based on this year the answer is it was artificial and the second half was a return to real Richmond.
* Cotchin has a leadership group around him but they don't lead. Instead they look up to him and, if Cotch is held, they fail to show any responsibility, fail to show leadership and fail to rise up. Include Riewoldt and Martin in there too. The advantage of multiple leaders is infectious as we saw from Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell, Drew Petrie and Brent Harvey. The rest then follow the example of the leaders. Richmond don't have that.
* When North were charging in that 3rd qtr, Deledio went to the wing rather than going in the guts and just
walked into the centre square at a centre bounce while Cotchin had no presence when the game was on the line.
* Lyon said Cotchin was not a great leader right now and it was a fact that was reflected in the way Richmond play.
* Eight points down in the last qtr - Maric mouths off to an umpire and concedes a 50-metre penalty which turned a tough shot on goal for Ziebell from 20 metres out into a certainty at a crucial time of the game.
* Chaplin panicked. Defenders are beholden to the whim of what is going on in the midfield but, especially as a designated leader, that doesn't mean you tug the jumper and just push opponents under the ball; you still need to contest on your merits.
* Talk is cheap and artificial motivation doesn't work. After the Essendon game, the team gathered in the middle of the ground and Trent spoke to them with Chaplin and Jack. They speak during the week about doing this and that. Post-North game, they again gather in the middle of the ground and Trent again speeks to the team. Lyon would love to attend Tuesday training this week to see how the leaders act during the week.
* Speaking of false motivations - Choco Williams jumper punched Griffiths before the game. Now Griffiths never plays that way - bumping Hansen over when they were winning. He ended up with just two kicks so it was all false.
* Hardwick can't make the players do things. He can coach them and educate them to play a certain way. It's the playing group that can only turn it around. They need to drive the change and that comes from the leaders. It's what we do during the week that gives us confidence to do what we need to do when we're 35 pts up at half-time.
