Nick Vlastuin on SEN / Hardwick's blunt message about the Prelim loss

[one-eyed]

Floss on SEN this morning with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson

AUDIO: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=309352

[one-eyed]

Hardwick's blunt message to help the Tigers move on from prelim loss

By Ronny Lerner
The Age
7 December 2018 — 10:44am

It was one of the biggest finals upsets of the last 20 years, but what was Richmond coach Damien Hardwick’s summation of the Tigers’ stunning preliminary final loss to Collingwood in September?

Quite simply: “S--- happens.”

Star Richmond defender Nick Vlastuin said those two words, which were relayed to the players a few days after the sensational grand final qualifier, made it easier for them to move on quickly from the shattering result which denied them a shot at back-to-back flags after being the best-performed team of the season.

“We went back in four days post-game I think just for our exit interviews, they had the whole group in there and ‘Dimma’ just kind of sat down and said, pretty much, ‘poo happens’,” Vlastuin told SEN on Friday.

“He put it into perspective, he looked at the whole year, it was a pretty successful year, we only lost six games and Collingwood just played too good that day.

“He tried to get us to move on pretty quick because you don’t really get better dwelling on such a bad game for us so after that meeting the boys were pretty positive and I was kind of happy to see the flag head over to West Coast and not really hear about it too much since.”

There were rumours that a nasty bug had swept through the team in the lead-up to the preliminary final, but Vlastuin wasn’t going to blame the loss on sickness.

“I think Dave [Astbury] was one of the main ones but no one really used that as an excuse, I don’t think it was a whole group thing, it was just one or two blokes weren’t feeling great,” he said.

“We just didn’t perform and Collingwood played really well.”

Superstar Dustin Martin was also believed to have been suffering a significant knee injury heading into the preliminary final, and the fact that he had a quiet game seemed to back up that suspicion.

However, Vlastuin said the Brownlow medallist was now looking in better shape than he usually does at this time of year.

“He’s been hanging out with ‘Cotch’ [Trent Cotchin] and his family for the last month or so,” he said.

“So there wasn’t too much ‘Vegasing’ and stuff, or I think he got it all out of his system right at the start ... so he’s actually looking pretty good.”

Boom recruit Tom Lynch continues to build up to full fitness after undergoing PCL surgery earlier this year.

“He’s going really well, he’s in rehab still, so not with the main group, but pretty much two weeks before even our young boys were back, he was in there every day,” he said.

“He’s had a pretty extended break, so he’s keen to get back into it.”

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/afl/hardwick-s-blunt-message-to-help-the-tigers-move-on-from-prelim-loss-20181207-p50kt4.html

[one-eyed]

Vlastuin gives updates on star duo Lynch and Martin

By David Zita
SEN
7 Dec 2018

Richmond midfielder Nick Vlastuin has given updates on two of the club’s biggest stars in Dustin Martin and Tom Lynch.

Star recruit Lynch had a minor procedure on his knee last month, after surgery to repair his PCL in July, but Vlastuin says his commitment so far has been promising.

“He’s going really well,” Vlastuin told SEN Breakfast.

“He’s in rehab still, so not with the main group.

“Pretty much two weeks before even our young boys were back he was in there everyday.

“He’s keen to get back into it, and as far as I can tell he’s fitting in really well.”

Vlastuin also revealed there are promising signs for gun midfielder Dustin Martin, the 2017 Brownlow Medalist coming back from the off-season in better shape than previously.

“He’s probably (come back) a little bit better than normal,” Vlastuin said.

“He’s been hanging out with ‘Cotch’ (Trent Cotchin) the last month or so,

“There wasn’t too much ‘Vegas-ing’ and stuff, or I think he got it out of his system right at the start,

“He’s actually looking pretty good.”

After finishing on top of the ladder in 2018, Richmond’s premiership defence came to a premature end, with a shock loss to Collingwood in a Preliminary Final.

According to Champion Data, it has the fifth-easiest fixture of any team in 2019.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/12/06/vlastuin-gives-updates-on-star-duo-lynch-and-martin/

[Diocletian]

It was one of the biggest finals upsets of the last 20 years,

No it wasn't.... 

[Tiger Tragic]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

[Willy]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.

[mightytiges]

There were rumours that a nasty bug had swept through the team in the lead-up to the preliminary final, but Vlastuin wasn’t going to blame the loss on sickness.

“I think Dave [Astbury] was one of the main ones but no one really used that as an excuse, I don’t think it was a whole group thing, it was just one or two blokes weren’t feeling great,” he said.

“We just didn’t perform and Collingwood played really well.”

Who was the other one? Lambert?

[Tiger Khosh]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.

Don’t agree. While we wernt at our very best towards the end of the season we were still putting teams away and then taking our foot off the pedal and letting the games be closer than they should have been probably because the players new the results wouldn’t really have a bearing on where we finished.

Don’t believe the qualifying final was an anomaly just the boys realising it was business time and a 4 qtr performance was required. The preliminary final was the anomaly. The boys just didn’t show up to play whether that was because of injury/illness whatever. You can’t honestly tell me that our performance in that game was anywhere near what we were playing the last 4-6 rounds of the season because we would have lost a fair few more games had it been.

[Tiger Tragic]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.

Don’t agree. While we wernt at our very best towards the end of the season we were still putting teams away and then taking our foot off the pedal and letting the games be closer than they should have been probably because the players new the results wouldn’t really have a bearing on where we finished.

Don’t believe the qualifying final was an anomaly just the boys realising it was business time and a 4 qtr performance was required. The preliminary final was the anomaly. The boys just didn’t show up to play whether that was because of injury/illness whatever. You can’t honestly tell me that our performance in that game was anywhere near what we were playing the last 4-6 rounds of the season because we would have lost a fair few more games had it been.

Check the scores from the last 5 games.  With the exception of GC, we were generally a goal up at half time in each of those games.

[Tazzytiger]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.
Agree

[Tiger Khosh]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.

Don’t agree. While we wernt at our very best towards the end of the season we were still putting teams away and then taking our foot off the pedal and letting the games be closer than they should have been probably because the players new the results wouldn’t really have a bearing on where we finished.

Don’t believe the qualifying final was an anomaly just the boys realising it was business time and a 4 qtr performance was required. The preliminary final was the anomaly. The boys just didn’t show up to play whether that was because of injury/illness whatever. You can’t honestly tell me that our performance in that game was anywhere near what we were playing the last 4-6 rounds of the season because we would have lost a fair few more games had it been.

Check the scores from the last 5 games.  With the exception of GC, we were generally a goal up at half time in each of those games.

Think you’ll find that was the case for a fair few of our games throughout the season with the game being pretty close until the 4th qtr where we ran over teams.

In those last 5 games we blew out St Kilda and Gold Coast from start to finish, we had “close” wins over Essendon, geelong and the bulldogs where we built up between 3-6 goal leads in the final qtr before taking our foot off the pedal and had a 5 goal win over the pies where it was close all game before we pulled away in the last.

Quite different to giving up 10 of the first 12 goals before half time wouldn’t you say?

[Tiger Tragic]

I can understand what Dimma is trying to do in terms of getting the boys to not dwell on it.  But, if we are assuming the Collingwood loss was an aberration, we would be deluded.  If anything, the win against the Hawks in the first week was the aberration.  For weeks before that, we were playing poorly, just falling across the line against some poo teams.  We were a sitting duck for a team playing well and with momentum and that is what happened v Collingwood.

If we learn anything it is that the best team of the year doesn't always win the premiership (in fact rarely does).  We need to do enough during the year to get the wins we need to make top 4 but ensuring we are carrying the momentum for the last part of the season and into the finals.  2017 was clear evidence of this.

Spot on.

Don’t agree. While we wernt at our very best towards the end of the season we were still putting teams away and then taking our foot off the pedal and letting the games be closer than they should have been probably because the players new the results wouldn’t really have a bearing on where we finished.

Don’t believe the qualifying final was an anomaly just the boys realising it was business time and a 4 qtr performance was required. The preliminary final was the anomaly. The boys just didn’t show up to play whether that was because of injury/illness whatever. You can’t honestly tell me that our performance in that game was anywhere near what we were playing the last 4-6 rounds of the season because we would have lost a fair few more games had it been.

Check the scores from the last 5 games.  With the exception of GC, we were generally a goal up at half time in each of those games.

Think you’ll find that was the case for a fair few of our games throughout the season with the game being pretty close until the 4th qtr where we ran over teams.

In those last 5 games we blew out St Kilda and Gold Coast from start to finish, we had “close” wins over Essendon, geelong and the bulldogs where we built up between 3-6 goal leads in the final qtr before taking our foot off the pedal and had a 5 goal win over the pies where it was close all game before we pulled away in the last.

Quite different to giving up 10 of the first 12 goals before half time wouldn’t you say?

Only different because better opposition. Play like we did v Bummers, Dogs and Cats against a top 4 team and we would have got blown away. 

[Tiger Khosh]

You mean like the 3rd place pies who we beat in that run or the 4th places hawks who we beat in the qualifying final?

Not saying we were at our best at the end of the season but we certainly far from abysmal like we were in the prelim although the dogs game wasn’t pretty.

[YellowandBlackBlood]

I have always felt that it would have done us a lot of good if we actually lost one of those last few games - probably the bulldogs game is the one we deserved to lose. It would have woken a few players up that we were quite beatable. Unfortunately we found that out in a sudden death match called the prelim.

As for some of the suggestions around here about timing our run to the finals.....well I hardly think many teams would want to flirt with form and "switch off" at times in the season so they can make a charge later. If you try to do that, players lose confidence and might not be able to get back in form. What they should have done is play guys like Balta and Garthwaite a little more in the last few games to rest some of the seniors when winning wasn't an absolute necessity.

[georgies31]

The pies reminded me of us in 2017 hit form right time.Could have maybe etc I don't subscribe to it if we loss a few would have made a difference. People forgetting we had a lot of wounded players out there that were lucky 50 % fit.