Dumbest Coach in AFL

[Hellenic Tiger]

He's not the dumbest coach but he will not coach us to a flag.
Some big fish will. Chocco possibly, even Leigh Matthews. Possibly a John Worsfold.

[Rampstar]

Does he have the balls to drop the likes of Newman and Edwards and afew of his favorites. Time to show us he has some poo in him and drop some of these players but I have my doubts at this stage.

[Diocletian]

Dumbest list in AFL.

[Judge Roughneck]

Feels somewhat like the loss to Melbourne that was the Wallace death nail

[TigerLand]

lol at this thread.
yeah harwick may have to carry a fair bit of the blame but ffs the players in no shape or form should get off scott free. how poor were they. bloody poor.
on riewoldt interesting that he only got off the chain after roughhead got hurt.  ffs wb only had two tall defenders who shut our weak as pee tall forwards out of the game but then they lost one and it became open season

we play so many mediocre players who quite frankly never stand up when the pressure hits and this will never change. to me this is hardwicks greatest mistake, backing in so many ordinary players and expecting to get good results. i have often asked how many glass half fulls can you afford to play each week. well we are obviously at the tipping point.

havent  we had enough of watching blokes like houli poo his pants and panic under pressure or grigg never ever working defensively. or chaplin making basic mistakes both skill wise and judgement wise. or jake king having 5 touches a game and i can go on and on. enough i say.
you know the trouble is there is nothing in the reserves thrashed by 117 points and the best player on the rookie list and cant be promoted.
when is the line going to be drawn in the sand and players get dropped for fail;ing to perform to a satisfactory level or for failing to perform basic skills regularly.

nah i dont solely blame the coach i reckon the players need to take a good hard look at themselves.

Thanks for another essay Claw.

Fact is we were pants by GC in the first half, pants by Carlton in the 2nd half and pants by the Dogs in the first half. All sides not expected to make the 8. Lost by under a kick both games, its a coaching staff issue, match tactics and game plan is bollocks atm.

[1980 I Was There]

What ever tactics or game plans there are, don't mean jack, the players are just pathetic at their disposals. Fix that, then we'll see where any, if any, plans actually do exist, and if they actually do work.
Start dropping players that continually turn the ball over and/or players that continually miss targets, it's a friggin disgrace and stuffing embarrassing.

And especially players that just STAND AND WATCH

[Diocletian]

It's fair to say the expansion teams haven't helped our rebuild....but there's still been some fundamental list management mistakes IMO. I think we're still down near the bottom in terms of how much genuine talent we've managed to unearth compared to all the other teams effected by the compromised drafts and I suspect if Melbourne hadn't cocked-up their recruiting so badly we'd be getting more closely scrutinised for it...and they've still got the likes of Hogan, Viney and the kids they drafted this year to come on.

Commentators don't actually pay much attention to our list or players outside of headline fodder Riewoldt & Martin- I mean they keep saying what success recycled players like Grigg & Houli have been. Do they actually watch our matches?

It has to be asked how we manage to so consistently recruit so many players with poor skills, poor decision making and a lack of poise. Why do have so many one-season wonders and kids who start like world-beaters then fade into obscurity? How many kids do we recruit that really have everyone sitting up and take notice right away?

The real worry is there's been large parts of the first three games that've looked like any Richmond game from the last twenty years. The unforced errors and stupid turnovers, the lack of awareness, players running into each other and spoiling each other (has any side done that more than we have over the last few decades?)....the last two especially are an indicator of a dumb side. The sheer panic under pressure and inability to stand up in tight finishes, poor decisions at crucial times. Getting dominated in the air. The missed tackles. The ineffective tackles. Opposition players just dancing around us with conumate ease and able to find teammates time & time again. Inabilty to capitalise on opposition errors, fumbles & loose balls and giving them plenty of time to recover. Inabilty to convert our forward entries and periods of dominance into scoreboard pressure. Quarters & halves whewre we get blown away. Conceding stupid, needless free kicks. Mental weakness, lack of fitness. Serial underperformers never getting dropped. These familiar themes that keep coming back to haunt us. They might disappear every now & then, but they always return eventually.

30 year albatross of failure getting heavier & harder to shake off.
 
I said it last week....there are two very easy ways to beat us - go 1-on-1 or play the slingshot. Today a crap side with three days less break did us with the latter and for the second time in three weeks bunch of kids were harder at the ball, looked smarter, more poised  and more skilled then we did, if that's not cause for cocern then I don't know what is.

[dwaino]

On the way to the train station heading to the game I was listening to Alastair Clarkson on MMM. They were trying to give him credit for blokes like Hill, Langford, Ceglar etc who have been in their system for a while and can come in and play their role in absence of first choice guns but he said their senior players are actually in fact an extension of their coaching group and should get the credit. He said it's guys like Hodge and Mitchell who know everything there is to know about their game take charge at training and then take it on to the field. When they're under the pump it is then not up to Clarkson in the box to relay the orders, rather those leaders who are very much coaches manage to get the game back under control themselves. I imagine it's the same thing at Geelong.

We don't have anything of the sort at Richmond. Past regimes rooted the club and the squad so bad we don't have anyone. It's the only reason I can even try and grasp at why Newman can still get a game but he's more harm than help these days. We still rely on Dimma having to leave the box to order the players from the bench (late final quarter vs Blues) and telling the players at half time to pull their fingers out and actually play  the way they've been instructed to play (second half vs Bulldogs).

Us and the other poo clubs should have 4 or 5 of these gun kids running around for the expansion teams each which doesn't help the cause. I don't blame the club or the coaches. Something stinks in our playing group and I can't put my finger on it. Any time we're expected to win they go into cruise control. Then they come out and have a dip against good sides (at least for 3 quarters) because they know they don't have a hope in hell otherwise.

[tigs2011]

It's fair to say the expansion teams haven't helped our rebuild....but there's still been some fundamental list management mistakes IMO. I think we're still down near the bottom in terms of how much genuine talent we've managed to unearth compared to all the other teams effected by the compromised drafts and I suspect if Melbourne hadn't cocked-up their recruiting so badly we'd be getting more closely scrutinised for it...and they've still got the likes of Hogan, Viney and the kids they drafted this year to come on.

Commentators don't actually pay much attention to our list or players outside of headline fodder Riewoldt & Martin- I mean they keep saying what success recycled players like Grigg & Houli have been. Do they actually watch our matches?

It has to be asked how we manage to so consistently recruit so many players with poor skills, poor decision making and a lack of poise. Why do have so many one-season wonders and kids who start like world-beaters then fade into obscurity? How many kids do we recruit that really have everyone sitting up and take notice right away?

We don't really recruit poorly skilled 18yo's.

1. Shaun Grigg
2. Shane Edwards
3. Ricky Petterd
4. Alex Rance
5. Matt Thomas
6. Todd Banfield
7. Troy Chaplin
8. Steve Morris
9. Nathan Foley
10. Todd Elton

These are the 10 crap kicks I came up with plus Hammer but as a ruck it shouldn't matter. You don;t use them for skill. Problem is 8 plus Hammer get regular games. Elton is the only one of those whose an 18yo drafted in Dimma's time and as a big CHF he's the least of our kicking worries.

How many recycleds have avoided the kicking mantra? Way too many.

On top of this Newman and King look cooked. King is very fumbly. Newman can't get a kick and hasn't for a long time. So you've got a tonne of passengers when you look at that.

The real worry is there's been large parts of the first three games that've looked like any Richmond game from the last twenty years. The unforced errors and stupid turnovers, the lack of awareness, players running into each other and spoiling each other (has any side done that more than we have over the last few decades?)....the last two especially are an indicator of a dumb side. The sheer panic under pressure and inability to stand up in tight finishes, poor decisions at crucial times. Getting dominated in the air. The missed tackles. The ineffective tackles. Opposition players just dancing around us with conumate ease and able to find teammates time & time again. Inabilty to capitalise on opposition errors, fumbles & loose balls and giving them plenty of time to recover. Inabilty to convert our forward entries and periods of dominance into scoreboard pressure. Quarters & halves whewre we get blown away. Conceding stupid, needless free kicks. Mental weakness, lack of fitness. Serial underperformers never getting dropped. These familiar themes that keep coming back to haunt us. They might disappear every now & then, but they always return eventually.

The turnovers come from the useless kicks in the team that shouldn't be getting a game under the "you must be a good kick" mantra. Generally speaking recycled players, who seem to avoid scrutiny in this regard. As good as Thomas has been, he sells blokes down the river trying to get rid of the ball to anyone but himself.

We have/had a stack of guys who have shown signs but just waste away now. Odds are they don't give a stuff because they know they aren't a Dimma Favourite and the ressies results reflect it.

1. Matt Dea - uses the ball well, racks it up at VFL, cleanest guy we have below his knees bar Cotchin. poos his pants at AFL level because he knows one mistake and he's back in the ressies. Last year's Eagles game he played well, next week banished for good.

2. Jake Batchelor - promising HBFer in his first 2 years. Bulk him up into an undersized KPD, then draft a hack in Petterd as a HBF. FFS we had a decent one already. His first 2 years were better than anything Ricky has dished up (excluding last weeks one off)

3. David Astbury - I'm making a presumption he will make way for Rance instead of Chappy regardless of form over next few weeks. Needs confidence as he has some ability albeit he's a bit slow, but he can take the big, slow gorilla forwards.

4. Ben Griffiths - should have been fed games over the years as a forward. He's a more natural forward and more natural ruck than Tyrone.

5. Anthony Miles - hopefully doesn't give up in the reserves before he gets a chance. Might actually be a successful rookie pick for a change.

6. Brad Helbig - earns games in the VFL, plays a totally different position at AFL and gets dropped, rinse and repeat. He hasn't gotten any better, but hasn't been given a chance.

7. Liam McBean - hopefully can put some weight on and get a chance sooner or later.

8. Matt McDonough - what can he do to get a regular game. Dominates VFL in a poo team all last year and then is dropped. Give the kid a chance and we might actually unearth a gem.

9. Matt Arnot - let this kid play as a bullocking inside midfielder. His skills are better than a number of guys we have such as Thomas, Petterd, Grigg and he has the tank to play full-time mid if we actually play him.

10. Ben Lennon - 10x better user than half the team. Get him in soon, even as a sub. Give him a taste of it.

[tigs2011]

On the way to the train station heading to the game I was listening to Alastair Clarkson on MMM. They were trying to give him credit for blokes like Hill, Langford, Ceglar etc who have been in their system for a while and can come in and play their role in absence of first choice guns but he said their senior players are actually in fact an extension of their coaching group and should get the credit. He said it's guys like Hodge and Mitchell who know everything there is to know about their game take charge at training and then take it on to the field. When they're under the pump it is then not up to Clarkson in the box to relay the orders, rather those leaders who are very much coaches manage to get the game back under control themselves. I imagine it's the same thing at Geelong.

We don't have anything of the sort at Richmond. Past regimes rooted the club and the squad so bad we don't have anyone. It's the only reason I can even try and grasp at why Newman can still get a game but he's more harm than help these days. We still rely on Dimma having to leave the box to order the players from the bench (late final quarter vs Blues) and telling the players at half time to pull their fingers out and actually play  the way they've been instructed to play (second half vs Bulldogs).

Us and the other poo clubs should have 4 or 5 of these gun kids running around for the expansion teams each which doesn't help the cause. I don't blame the club or the coaches. Something stinks in our playing group and I can't put my finger on it. Any time we're expected to win they go into cruise control. Then they come out and have a dip against good sides (at least for 3 quarters) because they know they don't have a hope in hell otherwise.

At the game the only guys that want the ball when the game is on the line are Cotch, Jack and Gordo. The rest just hope someone else will do it. Enough is enough. We also don't have the cattle to do what we "want" to do. 

[dwaino]

Cotch will still only play to instruction when it's on the line though. Against Carlton it took Hardwick to get down to the bench and tell Cotchin and co to get back on the ball so we could start winning clearances again. Like today at about the 25min mark of the 4th, the ball went dead across the boundary around our forward 50. I looked down to see Cotchin playing spare in the back half. Martin was in the goal square and I have no idea where the other derps were. That's when he needs to tell the other spazzes to get out of the way.

[tigs2011]

Cotch will still only play to instruction when it's on the line though. Against Carlton it took Hardwick to get down to the bench and tell Cotchin and co to get back on the ball so we could start winning clearances again. Like today at about the 25min mark of the 4th, the ball went dead across the boundary around our forward 50. I looked down to see Cotchin playing spare in the back half. Martin was in the goal square and I have no idea where the other derps were. That's when he needs to tell the other spazzes to get out of the way.

derps. Yeah we are mentally a bunch of potatoes. Was more referring to people leading at the guy with the ball. Genuinely about 3 blokes presenting. 1 of which was a first gamer. The others stand around hoping it gets passed elsewhere.

[dwaino]

We sat third level aisle 45. Highest we've sat in ages because we're level 1 at the G and got to see things we normally don't get to. We couldn't believe how stagnant Richmond were whenever we had the ball in the back half. Like you said,  bugger all movement besides some hand waving. One time someone even kicked it Cotchin while Wallis was standing there trying to dry root him. I don't even think he called for  the ball 

[Diocletian]

I don't think we've recruited any truly good kicks under  apart from Martin, Vlastuin, Griffiths, Ellis & Houli...and the last two can still turn it over. Conca is way too inconsistent to be considered a good kick , despite being capable of the odd freakish pass.

It is bizarre how we seem to recruit these recycled "depth players" and they invariably end up as first team regulars ....I was only half joking when during the pre-season I said that knowing us we'll upgrade Stephenson & Thomas. Knew all along they'd be the two who'd get the nod. Knew Thomas would be getting games the minute Hardwick said he was recruited "strictly as depth player". Hardwick is completely enamoured with blokes who've has AFL experience IMO. It alone appears to be enough for him to keep kids out regardless of their VFL performances. What does Arnot have to do FFS? Darrou, shocker today apprently, but regularly named in the best and praised by his coach in a backline constantly under seige, can't even get off the rookie list.

I think that 2012 loss to the Gold Coast still haunts Hardwick and effects his selections. He still has nightmares of Derickx & Webberly. He lacks faith in blokes with no or little AFL experience. He certainly seems to lack faith any kid taken after round one.



Two players who I think were unlucky - and I'm sure most here will disagree - Ben Nason was small, easily brushed aside not particulaly fast and had average skills - but - he had two things we sorely lack - he ran all day and he was smart, composed and knew where to run. Second highest goalkicker in his first year in a rabble of a side at the start of a rebuild.

Pat Contin often went missing in the VFL - but - he was easily the cleanest, smartest and best user of the ball at Coburg. IMO, he looked better than a few that  are now getting regular games in the seniors. Probably had a shocker today, I dunno, (did he play?) That's the kind of "depth" I'd prefer.

[Diocletian]

Cotch will still only play to instruction when it's on the line though. Against Carlton it took Hardwick to get down to the bench and tell Cotchin and co to get back on the ball so we could start winning clearances again. Like today at about the 25min mark of the 4th, the ball went dead across the boundary around our forward 50. I looked down to see Cotchin playing spare in the back half. Martin was in the goal square and I have no idea where the other derps were. That's when he needs to tell the other spazzes to get out of the way.

He can't do it all. Take Cotchin out of the side we're 0-3 with about 15 less percentage points.