While Matty Lloyd on 3aw was surprisingly forgiving about the loss, the past week has sadly gone to the way of the usual script:
I am actually feeling pretty good about today at the moment.
Yep, we lost and we didn't play well.
But I am backing our boys to turn this around, win the next two and approach the finals ready to put our best foot forward.
A Richmond supporter feeling good after that loss?
Yeah, poor choice of words. Comfortable maybe, certainly not gutted or devastated.
I don't really subscribe to the 'loss you had to have' or 'wake up call' theories, but I do think this performance will be a motivator for this team.
If we had won today, I have a nasty feeling that the team would really have been drinking its own bathwater, but on what? Beating a limp Hawthorn missing Hodge and a half strength Cats team albeit on their home turf. GC and Brisbane in the weeks prior to that.
The fact that we lost today to this Cats team (that is, undermanned) underscores that we are a fair way from a true premiership contender based on our performances for the last month. Hopefully it will dampen some of the media driven hysteria around us being a finals force and will allow the team to concentrate on the task at hand, maybe even fly under the radar for a bit.
Because when we play our first final, all of these players are going to find out what pressure to perform really is, especially on the back of losing our last 3 finals. And I want to see us as well prepared as possible for that test.
I believe in Balme and what he brings to our club, an astute footy mind not scared of hard calls and not prepared to sugar coat it. I want a warts and all examination under finals pressure, and I want the team ready for it, not peeing in their own pockets.
And if this loss doesn't motivate the team, we all know what the result will be because we have seen it before.
