Richmond's lack of competitiveness this year under Hardwick is almost mirror like to his predecessors in Wallace and Frawley.
The symptoms haven't changed.
Lack of numbers at contests = huge drop in performance across the board.
Look at the speed of the players against Essendon.
Thomas (Very Slow)
Maric (Very Slow - returning from Injury)
Hampson (Very Slow - carrying knee injury)
Jackson (Very Slow - Groin Injury)
Chaplin (Slow)
Grigg (Slow - carrying injury)
Griffiths (Slow)
Conca (Slow to medium) (workrate?)
Trent Cotchin (Slow to medium - Carrying Ankle Injury)
Deledio Medium (Carrying Achilles) I highlight him because he is normally quick.
You can carry a slow player if his performance in other areas is exceptional.
Tuck was slow around the ground, but was quick at a contest, could read the play, was strong overhead
and gave us first use of the ball. This meant our slow players spent less time chasing. None of the
players above excepting Deledio and Cotchin are exceptional in any areas. Hampson possibly with his ruck work.
You can live with Chapman and Hampson being slow because the majority of the time, they will have slow match ups. You just can't expect to be competitive with that many slow players in one team and especially when so many of them are midfielders.
Why is this such an issue?
Example 1: Cotchin, Conca, Thomas and Jackson go for the ball. Cotchin just gets there, makes a contest,
gets swamped by opposition players and dispossessed. The ball is cleared, then Conca,
Thomas, and Jackson show up (in that order). Too late.
Example 2: The ball moves up the wing. The ball is carried across the ground. Conca, Thomas and Jackson trail distantly behind their opponents. They can't keep up. The opposition run in numbers and have an overlap. Their disposal efficiency goes up due to lack of pressure on the ball carrier and receiver.
Example 3: Next contest, you have Griffiths, Grigg, Deledio and Hampson. Hampson taps to Deledio, Deledio makes a contest,
gets swamped, ball taken away again. Other guys watch on with their hands on their hips.
It doesn't take long for the competitive players in the side, Deledio, Rance, Cotchin, Riewoldt etc. to say to themselves after being
hammered every time they go near the ball. "Stuff this". They stop running as hard, they get rid of the ball as fast as
they can. They look like hacks now as well. The game plan looks ridiculously bad. Ball movement is slow
and hesitant, you don't want to kick the ball because your scared you will never get it back and you will look bad chasing someone elses
opponent. Every option is covered by 2-3 opposition players. Your teammates are still up the other end of the ground, waiting for the rebound.
The fix is simple. Slow players out. Faster players in.
Thomas, Maric, Griffiths, Jackson, Grigg. They all need to go next week. Vlastuin, Miles, Gordon, Helbig and Arnot must come in.
The least our coaching staff should demand is an even number of players at the majority of the contests. If you get beaten by a better team, so be it. If you get beaten by a worse team because your bottom five players can't run, there are no excuses.
