The Season so far

[one-eyed]

1/3 of the season has gone and we've played once all the sides we'll play again later on this year. So it's a pretty good time for a review.

How would you guys and gals rate our season so far and what positives/negatives in terms of individual players, coaches and the side overall have come out of it?

Also where do you think we'll finish at the end of the year and has it changed from the beginning of the season?

[Ox]

as expected.

[julzqld]

Two huge losses weren't to be expected.  And our wins have been against bottom 8 teams and our greatest winning margin has been 14 points which makes our percentage lousy.

[Ox]

Two huge losses weren't to be expected. 

You're right......expect about another 6-8

[Piping Shrike]

I thought 2 wins from the first 11 games would be achievable - therefore better than expected.

[Rodgerramjet]

I thought we would have been doing a lot better than what we are to this point and I don't mean in terms of win loss ratios. The key factor in how our seasons going is in how we are playing the games. Two losses of 115 and 118 are results that should not be happening at this stage, we should be acheiving what Hawthorne are acheiving or even slightly better, they have left us for dead and we were a side that supposedly had more forward potential than the Hawks up to that stage per Wallace. We are looking like the Carlton side of last year. If we had at least have stayed in the contest in all the games we have lost so far then I'd say that we are traveling at about the right pace, but we aren't, we have pretty much gone backwards, yes we have injuries and the number and players involved have hurt us but they weren't all injured in round 1 against the dogs and they belted us, so the writting was on the wall, actually the writting was on the wall when we were canned buy Essendon in Mildura. One positive out of the season so far and it's been very good to watch has been the work rate of Matthew Richardson at ground level with 2nd and third efforts I have never seen him play this part of the game as well as what he is at the moment.

[Darth Tiger]

As expected so far.  Only anticipated between 6 to 8 wins for the year.

Very positive with the number & potential of the debutants this year.

The rapid improvement of Raines.

Also positive about Tambling finding his feet at AFL level.

Hartigan embracing the gameplan, Lids getting more contested ball and understanding the type of tags he will inevitably attract throughout his career.

Improvement in all aspects of Simmo's ruck game and Richo's contribution to the side other than only on the scoreboard. Tivva being more consistent with his form.

Disappointment is limited to the injury toll (good luck Nathan & Will) and the 2 blow-outs, other than that good news at Coburg & RFC.

[WilliamPowell]

When I saw the draw I thought if we could be 4-4 after 8 rounds we would doing really well. After 7 we are 3-4 and after the start we had I think that's an OK result.

I am bit like Bull in that I find the 2 blowout losses unacceptable. When you are rebuilding there are "acceptable losses" (and I really do hate that term) and "unacceptable losses". 100+ point losses like the one on Saturday are harder too take for mine because it makes the hard work of the previous 3 weeks almost meaningless. But when you look at who we beat I suppose my expectations might be out of whack I want steady improvement but above all else I want to see us competitive and on Saturday like round 1 we weren't.

There have been some positives and the main one has been the blooding the youngsters. I reckon Polo (and I may have said this last year ) will be a very good player for us long term. Tambling is getting better, Hughes has shown glimpses with his limited game time as has JON in his 2 games and Nathan FOley has shown what he can do when he is left on the paddock.

The success story for me so far in 2006 is Andrew Raines - been absolutely sensational - long term player and future star. However, I really do wonder if playing someone before they appear to be ready is the right thing.

I reckon Richo has grown as a leader as evidenced by his 2nd and 3rd efforts that have always been there but were always hidden by the poor body language that everyone has focused on.

[mightytiges]

In terms of win-loss I'd reckon we're about on par with expectations but I agree with RR that those two 20 goals hidings are inexcusable. We never had anything like that last year even when we got smashed. Sad thing is it could become three for the year on Saturday  . The strange thing for me is I was expecting our worse results to come against the Saints and Eagles but in the Saints game we played our best footy for the year IMO and we stuck with the Eagles for a half. We normally match-up well on the Dogs and Swans but they ripped us to shreads with their pace both in the legs and in the mind.

Positives:
* More blokes being able to implement the run and carry gameplan. Much better than last year (excluding the 100+ thrashings).
* Richo is career best form and setting a good example to the young guys.
* Rainesy stepping up and slotting in nicely into a back-pocket.
* Two rising star nominations which must be a first fo us and the other youngsters either improving or getting their first taste of AFL.
* The Club sticking fast to the long term goals and not panicking.

Negatives:
* The huge number of turnovers due to our poor foot skills. We are still miles behind. Our wins have come only against sides that are just as poor as us. The most frustrating part being our shocking goalkicking which IMO is unforgiveable. Even against the Swans we had 3-4 missed shots in the first 10 minutes of the second quarter by Tuck and Cogs that had they gone through we could have been right with Sydney despite their lightning start. Instead we miss them all and the Swans nail theirs as they took control once again.  

* We're too nice a side. I know we have a number of light-bodies who need time to develop but we're nowhere near ferocious enough and don't support each other enough with blocks and shephards to free up teammates. We just don't get angry enough out there. Our low tackle count shows we lack bigtime in this area.    

[the_boy_jake]

I missed the last game as I was out all day Saturday, but.....

We are somewhere between our current ladder position and what our position would be if you based it on % (dead last)

Scrapping it out against ordinary teams but big losses unacceptable. Will be the one of the lasting memories of the generation of survivors in our team (Richo, Gaspar, J Bowden, Tivendale etc). Capable when faced with ordinary opposition, inept against class. Lack of leadership.

Forward structure still broken. One tall too many and Krak still lacking a small crumbing forward.

Some promising finds, midfield coming along OK, although as I have always said it is alright when we go in against teams with 2 or 3 decent midfielders but when faced with a brigade we really do suffer. I was pleased and surprised to hear Foley did well. I still think he is too small and a midfield with Foley and Coughlan would be difficult to fathom when you look at St. Kilda and West Coast. Hyde is just average and should have a for sale sign on him come seasons end.

[tiogar]

For me wins against Carlton, Collingwood or essendon go a long way to easing any annoyance at any other results so the wins at the G against 2 of them were welcome but I'm old school, this is richmond. it has been too long. Too long. Those guys out there should not be losing by cricket scores when playing for richmond football club.

Lose by 18 or 24 against WCE or Swans or whoever. OK not good but OK for now...but lose by a cricket score in Melbourne twice in 7 games. NOT good enough.

[Cain]

Asked a couple of mates recently about what they thought of the Richmond list. They named a few of the stalwarts, and the accepted histoical view (Kellaway - courage, Richo - love/hate, Sugar - reliable, Bowden - finally delivering etc etc.) I ran some names past them

Nathan Foley
Kelvin Moore
Luke McGuane
Travis Casserley
Will Thursfield
Matthew White
Cleve Hughes
Brent Hartigan
Chris Hyde
Jarrad Oakleigh-Nicholls
Adam Pattison
Daniel Jackson
Danny Meyer
Dean Limbach
Dean Polo
Tom Roach
Andrew Raines

Other than passing recognition of a few of them, they had no idea that we had such a young list. This I think bodes well for our future development. (unlike the roos) I am confident in our direction.

This doesnt make 100+ flogings acceptable.

3-4 after 7 rounds i'll happily wear.

[WilliamPowell]

* We're too nice a side. I know we have a number of light-bodies who need time to develop but we're nowhere near ferocious enough and don't support each other enough with blocks and shephards to free up teammates. We just don't get angry enough out there. Our low tackle count shows we lack bigtime in this area.    

This is one that gets forgotten. When things are going bad as they were on Saturday - our support for one another goes out the window. It is non-existent. At times it even gets to the stage that players become selfish because they don't do the little things to help their team-mate and that ticks me off no end. It was interesting on Saturday, where I sitting that was a comment that was getting made alot - our players being selfish. When that happens we've got no hope of being competitive IMV

Our tackle count after the St Kilda game was good, as it was against the Eagles and Lions but has dropped back to unacceptable levels in the last 3 weeks. What worries me with our tackling is the fact that so many opposition players just break our tackles too easily - we need to improve in this area sooner rather than later.

[mightytiges]

* We're too nice a side. I know we have a number of light-bodies who need time to develop but we're nowhere near ferocious enough and don't support each other enough with blocks and shephards to free up teammates. We just don't get angry enough out there. Our low tackle count shows we lack bigtime in this area.   

This is one that gets forgotten. When things are going bad as they were on Saturday - our support for one another goes out the window. It is non-existent. At times it even gets to the stage that players become selfish because they don't do the little things to help their team-mate and that ticks me off no end. It was interesting on Saturday, where I sitting that was a comment that was getting made alot - our players being selfish. When that happens we've got no hope of being competitive IMV

Agree WP. There were at few times on Saturday where we had a 2-1 advantage with one Tiger leading towards the footy and yet his teammate did nothing to protect him and in the end the one Swan ended up winning the footy  . Just plain laziness and selfishess. If none of those then just plain dumb   .

[harry bosch]

Given we are rebuilding i have been reasonably happy with the improvement of the young players on the list...
Even though we are at least 3 drafts away from having the required talent to form a top 4 side you can only work with
what you have and with that in mind the young players for the most part have been good..

Obviously disappointed with the 100 point floggings and hoping we suffer no more this year but being realistic...