Mark Robinson says mentally-fragile Richmond being let down by talls who lack biteMARK ROBINSON
HERALD SUN MAY 18, 2014 7:00PM SHARE
RICHMOND wasn’t soft on Saturday — they were sloppy and by the end utterly despondent against a team that played the Tommy Hafey way.
And that, Tigers, was shameful.
Pre-game comments about being relentless and tough and resilient ultimately paved the way for a Melbourne victory.
Coach Paul Roos was brilliantly provoking in his pre-match talk to the players. This was not about Richmond, he said, this was about Melbourne respecting Hafey’s legacy.
It was brilliant reverse psychology coaching.
If Roos is coach of the year at the moment, and he should be, then the Tigers are the plonkers of the year.
Is there another team so mentally fragile?
They sit in 16th position and are arguably the worst team in the competition behind an injury-ravaged Brisbane.
It’s a stunning fall for a team that won 15 games last year and for a coach who was given a contract extension until the end of the 2016 season.
Question marks hang over Punt Rd as dark and foreboding as a London pea souper, and it’s not so much about the team, but the individuals.
Put it bluntly, Richmond’s talls stink.
Ruckman Shaun Hampson can win hit-outs, but can’t mark the ball. He took his one and only mark on the half-back line on Saturday and the crowd gave him a bronx cheer.
He’s played seven game this year and taken nine marks. He’s taken two marks in past four matches. It’s just not good enough.
This is about Saturday and about the whole of the season.
Full-back Troy Chaplin is 28-years-old and is playing like he’s 38. He was poor below his knees against the Demons and suddenly looks slow.
He had Cameron Pedersen and Max Gawn as opponents. They took five marks against him.
Ben Griffiths has played 26 games in five years. He doesn’t find the ball as much as he should and when he does, he can be game-changing.
His seven tackles against the Demons showed he had the work ethic, but 0.3 from set shots is not acceptable for a player with considerable talent and depth in his right foot.
He has played defence in his career, but as a forward he has only 8.10 to his name.
Tyrone Vickery is the whipping boy and, sorry, but he deserves it. I don’t know what his position is any more. And he’s going to hate to seeing some of his efforts overhead in the team review.
We mark the guns harder and although Jack Riewoldt has 17 goals for the season, it still amounts to less than two a game. Clearly, he is burnt by the delivery at times, but the simple fact is Riewoldt has to get more ball.
There are others. Shane Edwards has played 137 games of football. His improvement has stopped.
Shaun Grigg laid six tackles on Saturday. The week before it was five. Before that it was zero, zero, two, two, two and two. It should be minimum five every week for a mid, even for a running mid as Grigg is.
And being an outsider, he must kick goals when the opportunity rises. On Saturday he kicked 0.3
The team itself is a shell of 2013.
On Saturday, the Tigers weren’t tough enough for long enough.
They landed 29 tackles to 20 in the first quarter and virtually squared the contested ball.
After quarter-time, the Demons won the contested ball by 15 and took 19 contested marks to nine. Nineteen! No wonder coach Damien Hardwick lamented his team’s inability to win the one-on-ones.
After Saturday, it’s too easy to throw around words such as soft and insipid and pathetic at Richmond.
The fact is, they had a crack, but they’re not a good football team.
TAME, LAME TIGERS — YELLOW AND BACKBen Griffiths
Troy Chaplin
Shaun Hampson
Tyrone Vickery
Shane Edwards
Shaun Grigg
Jack Riewoldt
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/mark-robinson-says-mentallyfragile-richmond-being-let-down-by-talls-who-lack-bite/story-fni5f0at-1226921852965
