Richmond are nearly irrelevant: RobboJoshua Papanikolaou
SEN
07 May 2016, 01:43PMRegardless of their form Richmond is rarely far away from the back page of the newspapers but at the moment they are nearly irrelevant, says Mark Robinson.
With just one win from now seven games the Tigers are highly unlikely to play finals this year, which was a minimum requirement from most critics before the season started.
“I think we’ve got to the point where they’re irrelevant, at one and six a team is almost irrelevant,” said Robinson on SEN radio.
“You start looking at the opposition and if Hawthorn lost last night we would have been asking, well (what is wrong with Hawthorn?)
“Even you Derm were questioning them (the Hawks) after winning by 46 points.
“That’s what they had to do (hold onto the ball) because Richmond couldn’t afford a blowout game and it kept them in the game for three quarters.
“I was thinking they’re playing okay, kicking it long and the tall forwards were marking it.”
A largely competitive contest with Hawthorn at the MCG on Friday night would have given supporters some positivity, but the final result was again far from satisfactory.
Dermott Brereton even suggested that more than half the teams in the league last night would have beaten the Hawks given their performance.
“I’m not sure they would have beaten St Kilda, Melbourne and any one of the other top eight teams would have rolled Hawthorn last night,” he said.
“So, Hawthorn aren’t in great nick even though they won by 46 points – they’ve always covered these players (Hodge, Mitchell and Roughead) but now they’ve got about five juniors that are really vulnerable at the moment.”
Going even further than that was Terry Wallace who suggested the winner of the last three premierships could not claim the flag this year if they continue to get beaten at stoppages.
“Well I’ll give you one stat, in the last 13 games, so from Round 22 last year including all their finals they’ve won contested possession twice,” he explained.
“Well it’s getting them wins now so it won’t affect where they finish on the ladder but you’re not going to win a flag if you can’t win contested possession.”
Read more at:
http://www.sen.com.au/news/05-16/tigers-are-nearly-irrelevant-robbo#cewEYIPbzmTD2PuT.99
