Tiger fallout 'borderline hysterical' says Riewoldt / Jack, Rance support Dimma

[one-eyed]

Tiger fallout is 'borderline hysterical', Riewoldt says

Nathan Schmook 
AFL.com.au
August 2, 2016 9:24 PM


THE EMOTION surrounding Richmond as it deals with the fallout from a horror fortnight has become "borderline hysterical", according to forward Jack Riewoldt.

The future of contracted coach Damien Hardwick has been in the spotlight after the Tigers' 88-point loss to Greater Western Sydney, and the merits of trading a big-name player have been debated externally.

Reports have also emerged this week about a group of disgruntled long-time supporters rallying to have certain board members replaced.

The fallout inside the football department has already begun, with two assistant coaches told on Monday they would not be part of the club's plans for 2017.

"It's borderline hysterical the way people outside the football club – and a lot of them are in the media – ride the rollercoaster that we don't ride," Riewoldt told Fox Footy.

"We're a big club and we understand that we have a lot of members, and at the moment we probably have a lot of disgruntled members with the way we're going.

"The players know that and know that we're not playing well enough at the moment.

"What can you say? We've got a lot of young guys that are playing at the moment against a side (GWS) that's going to be right up there at the end of September."

Riewoldt said there was a feeling of "disappointment and embarrassment to play like that" following the Tiqers' loss to GWS, but he was hopeful the final four rounds would present opportunities for the club to improve.

He said calls for Hardwick to be removed as coach and key players like Brett Deledio to be traded were counter-productive.

"We're not playing fantasy football here. You don't trade people in or get rid of people week in, week out," he said.

"The commentary about trading some of our better players is exactly that and I think the coach comes under that as well."

Another spot-fire at Richmond has been speculation that star defender Alex Rance's long off-season break had caused friction with teammates.

The All-Australian backman was granted an extended three-month break last summer after agreeing to a four-year contract extension, but he will start the 2017 pre-season with the rest of his teammates. 

Rance said he was not aware of any ill feeling from teammates because of the off-season break.

"It wasn't just me going to the senior body and saying, 'I need this'," the 26-year-old said on Fox Footy.

"It was a group discussion that we all partook in and it wouldn't have gone ahead if it was going to do some damage to the football club.

"It was somewhere I just felt I needed to reassess and have a bit of a check on where my life was at.

"I came back in some pretty good nick and I don't think I've skipped a beat."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-08-02/tiger-fallout-is-borderline-hysterical-riewoldt-says

[one-eyed]

Rance, Riewoldt show their support for Hardwick

Ben Higgins
News Corp Australia
3 August 2016

RICHMOND star Alex Rance doesn’t believe coach Damien Hardwick should be judged on 2016 alone.

The year has been a disaster for the Tigers given expectations were high after finishing fifth last season just a game outside the top four.

After a horror 88-point loss to Greater Western Sydney, the club sits in 13th with just seven wins to its name and questions being asked of Hardwick’s future and calls for senior players to be traded for young talent.

Hardwick has been in charge at Punt Road since 2010 and 2016 is on track to be his worst since 2011.

However, Rance was adamant Hardwick was the man to take the Tigers forward.

“Absolutely. I don’t believe you can judge a coach on one year,” he told Fox Sport’s AFL Tonight.

“He’s shown some fantastic development signs with a lot of our younger players and he’s a very good structural, caring coach.
Damien Hardwick directs traffic at Richmond training. Picture: Colleen Petch

“I definitely believe that with him and Trent (Cotchin) at the helm, we’ll be moving on from this year.

Rance’s thoughts were echoed by key forward Jack Riewoldt who also came to Hardwick’s defence.

Riewoldt said calls to sack Hardwick were way off the mark.

“In the last 30 or 40 years, we have been to the finals five times. He (Hardwick) has been at the helm for three of those,” Riewoldt said on AFL 360.

“Granted we haven’t been where we wanted to in the second week of finals. We have had a bad year this year. A lot of things have gone against us. Some of them, not our doing and some of them our doing.

“Unfortunately the buck stops a lot with the senior coach.”

There have been calls for the Tigers to move on some big name stars in order to help fast track the club’s rebuild.

However, Riewoldt was against trading out quality people.

“Every team’s supporters and members want them to be winning. All I can say to them, we are not playing fantasy football here,” Riewoldt said.

“You don’t trade people in or get rid of people week in, week out. You can’t get rid of a good person and then hopefully have him back in two weeks. The commentary about trading some of our better players is exactly that.”

RANCE conceded that he expected to be playing finals in 2016 but was confident the club would be able to rebound quickly.

“You naturally expect when you play finals that you’re just going to keep on that track,” he said.

“This year was a bit of an anomaly but I don’t see that it is going to be putting us too far back behind the eight ball.

“It’s not as though we’ve completely turned over our list, we’ve still got some really good talent and good senior players.

“I think we’re going to be able to turn it around pretty quick.”

'We need to be better'

The Tigers fall from grace has led to calls being made to trade senior players at the end of the year to bring in young talent.

Brett Deledio’s name has been at the forefront of those calls but Rance himself as not been immune.

“No I’m very happy at Tigerland and still contracted for a fair while,” he said.

“When people talk about the talent in our team, I don’t buy into the argument that we need more talent to come in.

“I think we have an extremely talented list, we just need to maximise the talent that’s there.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/alex-rance-says-richmond-coach-damien-hardwick-should-not-be-judged-on-one-season/news-story/f99378999ea6a9c8f552c6aa2866b175

[Stalin]

3.5 (23 )  boarder line hysterical

Fo damien 

[Jackstar 1960]

3.5 (23 )  boarder line hysterical

Fo damien

Agree
Did I just say that ?
Oh dear , me agreeing with Stalin

[(•))(©™]

That's why we should trade him

[Harry]

Jack says they don't ride the rollercoaster ride that many outside the club do.  Interesting.

[(•))(©™]

It would explain his temperament and inconsistency.

[Knighter]

Can someone tell Jack that Rollercoasters go up and down. It's been all stuffen down this year pal. Suggest spending more time practising your goal kicking which has been poohouse this year and less time in media street.

[Jackstar 1960]

Can someone tell Jack that Rollercoasters go up and down. It's been all stuffen down this year pal. Suggest spending more time practising your goal kicking which has been poohouse this year and less time in media street.

Correct
Who got him taking the three step garbage

[(•))(©™]

When is he out of contract

[one-eyed]

When is he out of contract

End of 2019.

[(•))(©™]

FML

[one-eyed]

More from Jack:

Riewoldt said the Tigers would use the next four weeks to tinker with their line-up and trial young players who haven’t had many opportunities to date.

He added that the current Richmond list was “very talented”, saying he was excited about some of the younger players coming through, such as Jayden Short and Mabior Chol.

“We’ve got six first or second year-players at the moment that have played less than 20 games. As a senior player that’s nowhere near where I want to be out at the moment, I look at those guys and they made me feel good about where I think we can get to,” Riewoldt said.

Riewoldt said he and his teammates will be desperate to atone for, not only the GWS thrashing but also the last-second Round 2 loss to Collingwood, when the Tigers take on the latter at the MCG this Friday night.

“We’ve got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do Friday night as the other 21 players that do that go out on the weekend, as all the other coaches do,” he said.

“We’ll prepare like we do every week, we’ll prepare as good as we can to play our brand of footy, a better brand of footy than we served up last week.”

http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/jack-riewoldt-urges-members-to-remain-patient-with-richmond-sackings-and-trades-not-the-answer/news-story/4f4d5b9af0087a8497a280ed599efdbd

[(•))(©™]

You've got nothing to do jack.

You all stuffed it up weeks ago.

This is just in your own deluded brain, brother.

[Lozza]

So why with 5 rounds to go did we drop McBean and George, doesnt make sense that now all of a sudden with four rounds to go we will tinker with the line up and introduce some more young players.

Really start to wonder who has brainwashed who at this club. They all seem to believe that our current predicament isnt as bad as we all think it is and a bit of tinkering here and there is going to solve all our problems...WAKE UP YOU MANIACS!

We require major changes in all aspects of the clubs operations, blind Freddy can see that, with the current attitude of the senior players together with a delusional coach I can see another wasted 2017 season coming up.