Some very good talk from Mooney on SEN where it went wrong with us and the way they dealt with it at the Cats, also said what Thompson wound have done to change it. That shows me Hardwick is further away from being competent to take us further. Also how immature and selfish our players are.
Can’t let your skipper get beat up: MooneyJoshua Papanikolaou
SEN
15 Sep 2015It is unacceptable and an indictment on the Richmond playing group that captain Trent Cotchin was blanketed out of the game by a tagger, says Cameron Mooney.
He was held to just nine possessions, including just three kicks, against North Melbourne in the elimination final by Kangaroos midfielder Ben Jacobs.
“Yeah Cotchin had a poor game and he’ll have to live with that the whole summer,” said Mooney on SEN radio.
“But he’s their captain and arguably the best player so how could you allow him to be manhandled, pushed and shoved?
“There is no way in the world Geelong or Hawthorn, or if you go back to the days with Brisbane big Browny would have come through and knocked Jacobs on his backside.
“You can’t allow a person to dictate to your best player like they did on Saturday.”
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has claimed through the season his group has significantly developed in terms of leadership on the field.
Mooney suggests that the inability for anyone to take the initiative and help their captain on the biggest of stages proves they still have work to do.
The former Geelong forward claims such a thing would never of happened within his team when the Cats were winning premierships.
“I’m so disappointed, it just showed me that they are still some distance away from being a real mature group,” he said.
“They’ve said throughout the year that they have matured but it came to the biggest game of the year and it went out the door.
“I could not believe that somebody didn’t go and put some serious pressure on Jacobs when they ran past him.
“You could just see it unfolding and they all started freezing up, they didn’t think team.”
http://www.sen.com.au/news/09-15/can-t-let-your-skipper-get-beat-up-mooney