Brendon Gale wants Tigers to play 'exciting' footy (Age)

[one-eyed]

Brendon Gale wants Tigers to play 'exciting' footy
  Jon Pierik
    The Age
    June 23, 2014


Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale has turned the spotlight on coach Damien Hardwick to ensure an "exciting" brand of football, as club great Kevin Bartlett called for a revamp of the game plan.

Gale, who arrived home on Saturday after spending a week at the World Cup in Brazil with club sponsor Jeep, admitted the club's poor form was hurting the bottom line, with a poor attendance of 34,633 showing up at the MCG on Friday night as the Tigers lost to the Swans by 11 points. Only 22,074 were in attendance a week earlier when Fremantle was in town.

"Clearly our form is impacting crowd numbers. The crowd against Fremantle was very disappointing but against Sydney it wasn't too far off our budgeted number," Gale said.

"As Damien has said, we want to win as many football games in the back half of the year as we can and play an exciting brand of football that will bring people through the gate."
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The Tigers have won only three matches, with just one victory in their past eight games – a 113-point mauling of Greater Western Sydney.

They were criticised on Friday night for their indirect style and a desire to hold on to the ball for as long as possible, rather than looking to take the game on. They would finish with 70 more disposals and nine more clearances than the Swans.

Bartlett, the club's games record holder and former coach, urged Hardwick to rethink his game plan, as the Tigers prepare to face bottom-placed St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

"Yes the Tigers were competitive. In fact, a goal after the three-quarter-time siren gave the club a one-point lead [on Friday night]," Bartlett said on SEN.

"The modern game talks about contested possessions, hard-ball gets  ... in fact, you can produce just about every stat to support a win or a loss. Richmond kicked one goal after the 16-minute mark of the third quarter to the game's end. It took around 250 disposals for that one goal."

The Tigers' indirect style is reinforced in the statistics this season. Last year they had the second-highest kick-to-handball ratio, excluding forward 50. In the past four weeks, they are the second lowest of all teams.

They were second to only Hawthorn in scoring from stoppages last season. This year they are 10th. Their defence is also conceding 89.5 points per game, up from 81.3 last season – the third best in the league.

Bartlett said the Tigers' high-possession game plan was hard to watch.

"The modern game loves to talk about efficiency. Now, that is not very efficient football. Playing keepings off is going to drive the fans crazy," he said.

"The Tigers have to address and rethink a new way of scoring."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/brendon-gale-wants-tigers-to-play-exciting-footy-20140623-zshew.html#ixzz35SISluqm

[Hellenic Tiger]

Acknowledge Benny that 3-0-75 was a PR disaster and that the fans were the only ones to dig deep and actually contribute something to eliminate the clubs debt and that the 3 finals series was a failure as the 75K members which has now become another RFC pipedream.

Cut yours, the boards and the coaching/recruiting dept losses, go back to the draft, reevaluate admit the club took some short cuts that short term got us into the finals but long term have left us further back than where we were at the end of 2011 and then you might see some better footy.

Or if you can't be stuffed with us wait till Hawthorn plays at the G and be done with us.

The Skata Cycle. 32 years and counting. Plop Plop Plop. ŽŠ™

[The Big Richo]

Hey Benny you deadbeat flog,

If we were 11 and 2 and on top of the ladder and averaging ten goals a game, we would have the 75k members and record crowds.

How about the focus is on winning games not stuffing aesthetics.

Flogs.

[WilliamPowell]

Actually the article highlights something a number of people of mentioned/spoken of when the annual figures come out and that is the clubs apparent continued reliance on the fans to turn a profit whether that be via membership, FTF or bums on seats.

To borrow a saying relating to our game plan, from the business side of things where's the plan B so we dont' have to be so reliant on the "on-field"?

Not meaning it be another whack but it's a fair an reasonable question I reckon especially when the season has been as diabolical as 2014 has been

[Gigantor]

WP a wack is deserved,because many people have been saying for quite awhile now that the club should not be depended on the cash cow fans,they need other ,viable income streams.This message has gone unheeded it seems........Well RFC the fan that has supported you guys for eons appears to have had a gutfull

[The Big Richo]

Wouldn't that be the case for every club though?

Isn't it just the nature of the football clubs that on-field will have a huge impact on business?

[Gigantor]

Agreed Richo..but this is an issue that's been festering ever since we lost the pub(s) to Mathieson and co,yet it appears we have done nada

[Hellenic Tiger]

Just goes to show FTF worked and the steady increase in membership dollars earnt based on natural footy improvement equivalent to wins from 2010 onwards.

What happens next year Benny?

Suck eggs remember what you said in 2010.

[crackertiger]

The Intelligent Richmond fans saw this problem evolving 6 weeks ago.

Will get worse next year under Hardwick and co.

[unplugged]

Bartlett said the Tigers' high-possession game plan was hard to watch.

"The modern game loves to talk about efficiency. Now, that is not very efficient football. Playing keepings off is going to drive the fans crazy," he said.

"The Tigers have to address and rethink a new way of scoring."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/brendon-gale-wants-tigers-to-play-exciting-footy-20140623-zshew.html#ixzz35SISluqm

If playing like we did on the weekend wins us a flag, I hope the tigers never win a flag.

Glad that Gale is finally coming around now that he can see the impact this style of football has on the clubs bottom line.

I just hope our easy draw doesn't let Hardwick off the hook.  We need a coach with his own vision, who can set the trend for the future.  Not a coach who copies another teams vision from 7 years ago that he never fully understood in the first place and tries to apply it to modern footy.

[WilliamPowell]

Wouldn't that be the case for every club though?

Isn't it just the nature of the football clubs that on-field will have a huge impact on business?

Yep true

But the likes of C'wood or Hawthorn have those other revenue streams

As result they make $5 mill plus profits

[The Big Richo]

Personally, I'm happy to see us not have pokies revenue, that aside what are the other viable options?

I guess we had visions of tapping the Top End like Hawthorn has with Tassie but that was a debacle.

[Mr Magic]

Actually the article highlights something a number of people of mentioned/spoken of when the annual figures come out and that is the clubs apparent continued reliance on the fans to turn a profit whether that be via membership, FTF or bums on seats.

To borrow a saying relating to our game plan, from the business side of things where's the plan B so we dont' have to be so reliant on the "on-field"?

Bingo.
This year will be a total disaster financially and wipe out much of the good work of supporters who contributed greatly to the FTF.
No doubt whatsoever that they were relying on an improved on field performance to bring in the big bucks.
DISASTER!

[tigs2011]

Personally, I'm happy to see us not have pokies revenue, that aside what are the other viable options?

I guess we had visions of tapping the Top End like Hawthorn has with Tassie but that was a debacle.

In fairness a sold game to Darwin and Cairns this year would have been great for the extra million. People don't want to watch us anyway and the losses would help get pick 1. 

[Lozza]

Would Gale actually discuss gameplans with Hardwick because going by his comments and Hardwicks game day strategies it would appear they are not in the same universe. Have yet to see anything close to resembling "exciting", in fact due to lowered expectations I get excited when I see them actually string 3 possessions together whilst moving in a forward direction.