Time to eat some humble pie.

[mat073]

All summer I tried to "balance" out this forum with some positivity.

My belief was that although we still had a little way to go .....Hardwick deserved a little credit for taking over the basket case in 2010 to impressive home and away seasons in 2013 and 2015 which resulted in 15 wins . The 9 game winning streak of 2014 also provided the most joy any of us had experienced in three decades.

While my pre season optimism didn't take into consideration an injured Deledio,  Maric , Yarran ( and to a lesser extent Conca ).....never in my wildest dreams did I think we would fall off the cliff like we have.

As soon as I saw the round 1 team selected - I thought we would be lucky to win this ...Somehow we have gone from premiership window to rebuild mode because of one Nab Challenge disaster against Port Adelaide.
Have we now reached the point where we are trying to rebuild the rebuild.

It is alarming how much the list drops away in talent after our best 6 players . First round picks like Vickery , Conca , B.Ellis , Vlastuin and Lennon should all be complimenting our A graders but have been playing with as much purpose as fairy floss.
Martin and Cotchin are both at times sloppy with their disposal.

The club has completely over done the recruitment of "moneyball" "bargin basement " "hidden gems from state leagues" types . We can now boast the most "impressive" collection of list cloggers in the competition.
Grigg and Houli have got us from basket case to mid table but both are approaching their expirary date.
How on earth could we have Shawn Hampson playing in Richmond colours....ditto Taylor Hunt.
Lambert is a good honest player ...but we will never go deep into September with honest players.

The club has to go hard next trading period and try to entice some genuine "A grade" talent to the club. No more pussy footing around with the likes of Towsend or Moore. No more delisted free agents.

We cant seem to develop any key position players ....Griffiths is a big tease . Elton always seems to be in a permanent state of struggle  . I haven't seen too much of Mcbean but by the sounds of he is all sizzle and no sausage.

Most teams have gone past us now ....I would have zero confidence that we could beat either Brisbane or Essendon at the minute.

We have become too easy to score against , once we turn the ball over it's almost a certain goal to the opposition.

Its only a matter of time before Hardwick is given the flick . Personally I cant see him lasting the year.
Hopefully our next coach will be of similar ilk to a Adam Simpson and be revolutionary rather than try to simply replicate Hawthorn.


So to all my darksider "realist" friends , it was fun doing battle with you over the boring summer months....but I can no longer defend what looks like an absolute rabble. To quote Burt Reynolds from boogie nights ....if it looks like sh** and sounds like sh** .... it must be sh**.

[Tigeritis™©®]

Welcome Matt. 

[(•))(©™]

I'm sorry, you poor bastard.

Welcome to sanity.

This is dimmer's mess.

[eliminator]

Hardwick appears to me to be incapable of playing attacking football. He drops Lennon(a half forward who should be played as a half forward) and then replaces him not with another creative forward but with a dour defender. Likewise Lids didn't pull up so Hardwick replaces him with a battler like Townsend. Against Melbourne we played Morris, Townsend, Batch and Chaplin how on earth did we expect to kick a winning score. Hardwick refuses to take chances. His game plan is out of date. Time for change.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

If you step back a bit, I think there have been both ebbs and flows under Hardwick.
Actually Matt, rather that being blindingly positive, you've simply made an effort to provide evidence of the flows. That is just informed posting instead of irrational ranting.
For that, you aren't the one who should be apologizing.
They just seem to be playing like a mentally fatigued playing group.
Ball movement, running, decision making (speed of it, actual decision and execution of it) and even kicking for goal. They all look like it is getting on top of them. Actually the worst sign is the contested footy - how we let a 20 year old win the contested ball 24 times is beyond me. The lack of tackling pressure as seen in their uncontested possessions. How many tackles did they break last night?
To me, all of that happens when the message gets stale.

He won't be sacked this year, the earliest I see Hardwick going is well into season 2017.
So strap yourself in.

[WA Tiger]

Lennon is the same as every other player in the team, they must all be played off half back, according to some...

I mean why play a player in the position he plays his best in....

[🏅Dooks]

Hindsight shows the only difference between all of us on this issue is time.

But, more importantly, I will add if the likes of Matt073 and Hard Roar (the former doyens of defending the club) are jumping off defending the club after so many tough miles of debate then that says some pretty obvious things about where the club is at.

[🏅Dooks]

If you step back a bit, I think there have been both ebbs and flows under Hardwick.
Actually Matt, rather that being blindingly positive, you've simply made an effort to provide evidence of the flows. That is just informed posting instead of irrational ranting.

I think the issue to date has been arguements being put fwd of positive flows when most people see (and the results show) negative flows.

But, irrespective of who says what the real issue now is how the hell the club moves fwd from here. Interesting (albiet sad) times.

[Lozza]

The club has dug themselves a very big hole. Climbing out of the hole is going to be difficult because the first step is admitting the errors made both with recruitment and game strategy. We all know that won't happen so it's more a case that there will need to be some form of tumultuous upheaval within the club's structure for anything to happen short term.

It's more going to be a case of a number of individuals in self preservation mode which is selfish for the club moving forward and could set us back at least another 2 years on top of an eventual clean out and rebuild.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

If you step back a bit, I think there have been both ebbs and flows under Hardwick.
Actually Matt, rather that being blindingly positive, you've simply made an effort to provide evidence of the flows. That is just informed posting instead of irrational ranting.

I think the issue to date has been arguements being put fwd of positive flows when most people see (and the results show) negative flows.

But, irrespective of who says what the real issue now is how the hell the club moves fwd from here. Interesting (albiet sad) times.

That is fair but I was posting in context of Matts OP.
If you look back, on balance Matt took a far more fact based approach to his reasoning.

[Go Richo 12]

If you step back a bit, I think there have been both ebbs and flows under Hardwick.
Actually Matt, rather that being blindingly positive, you've simply made an effort to provide evidence of the flows. That is just informed posting instead of irrational ranting.

I think the issue to date has been arguements being put fwd of positive flows when most people see (and the results show) negative flows.

But, irrespective of who says what the real issue now is how the hell the club moves fwd from here. Interesting (albiet sad) times.

The movement forward by the club should be by playing the kids. No point in Lennon learning in twos when he can learn in the ones and still play better than Morris and co. George, Butler, Markov etc need to play four or so games in succession. Hardwick can save his skin by playing kids and giving his critics a glimpse of a brighter future.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Which we know won't happen because they will back the fact it's been the same situation the past 3 seasons and they've been able to right the ship.
Difference this year is that the game has beyond Hardwicks vision.
I still maintain his game plan will work better once winter hits and some of the pre season run comes out of young legs

[WA Tiger]

Which we know won't happen because they will back the fact it's been the same situation the past 3 seasons and they've been able to right the ship.
Difference this year is that the game has beyond Hardwicks vision.
I still maintain his game plan will work better once winter hits and some of the pre season run comes out of young legs

OMFG..

Yes and perhaps during the summer months they can knit raccoon hats to prepare for the winter so their brains are warm and they can think better...WTF?

[YellowandBlackBlood]

Need to put games into all the kids now.

Mid season elevate Chol. Play Lennon no matter what. Play Short and Butler. Play McBean. Play Elton. Play Markov.

Drop, Morris, Chaplin, Townsend, Batchelor, Houli, B. Ellis and Grigg.

I don't care if we don't win another game for the year. The positive is that our kids will be exposed to Senior footy. If we finish last we get the best pick in the draft.

Oh. Do not renew FJ, and BH too. Get Graham Wright from Hawthorn who I believe is out of contract.

I spend a small fortune on this club and I am sick of what they hand me back in effort.

[mat073]

Dimma can only redeem himself now by playing the kids .

I'm sure eventually Richmond will get up and running this year and win some games but it will only be wallpaper over the cracks.

Look at Port Adelaide last year .....won their last 5 games . Beat Hawthorn twice , won 12 games which usually results in finals .

Means diddly squat , Port have also been bypassed by the likes of Melbourne,  GWS and Gold Coast.

Hardwick needs to get the likes of Chol in the team asap to give us supporters hope.