What's worse?

[Gordon Bennett]

I went to the game. Geelong were hot as mustard. We were cold as ice. I was really disappointed in the performance, and a little concerned about where we're heading.My enthusiasm has taken a beating, and I'm worried that this is going to cost the club financially due to less revenue over the rest of the season. This will also make it even harder to compete with the wealthier clubs.

I look at the  young players and they suddenly don't seem as talented now as they seemed a week ago.

Despite all this, there is one thing that is even worse than the above, that galls me even more.What I think is worse than sunday's performance is the performance of many Richmond fans on internet sites and on talkback radio.
The ones who want to sack everybody, which is exactly what has failed us in the past. The ones who carry on like it's the end of the world, and bleat and cry in a way that is so far over the top it is ridiculous. They mock the players for a lack of toughness, but show the same weak characteristics themselves. They take cheap shots at players and show them a total lack of respect, yet at the same time say it's the players who lack respect. Some of these so-called fans also seem to take great delight in our poor performance, as if they're saying "I told you so, I was right ha ha ha....why didn't they listen to me?" Their egos are so huge they're convinced that the coach is a moron, and that they themselves know more about football than he or any of his support staff.

Loyalty. Loyalty. Loyalty. If not, bugger off.
Perspective.Perspective. Perspective. Get some.

To these "fans", a pox on you, because you gall me a lot more than our position on the ladder does, or our inept performance on sunday.

[FooffooValve]

agree to some extent. however, a 10 goal flogging is one thing...but 157 points?? this is not a flogging, this is some kind of implosion statement isn't it? as i've said on another thread, next week is a massive test. if we capitulate to a similar extent, then i think we have more than a "don't panic we're playing the kids" problem.

[Tigermonk]

we are intitled to comment about the club & the players for it is the supporters who pay memberships to help the clubs & go to the footy & put the AFL where it is today
a buisness who only takes from the fans & changes the rules to ugly football if it was not for the supporters there would be the VFL with 16 teams everyone enjoying football as a family adventure on a SATURDAY

But now its all about money Football is pathetic & is a large buisness & so the electronic age is here and the hostile fans have a place to talk to each other like never before & vent thier frustrations & the media feeds us even more we come to forums rant and rave some of us come from footballing backgrounds some even have fathers & family & sons involved in a capcity in the AFL in one way or another so football is sold to us so we have the right to rant & rave on forums and if people dont like what we talk about why do they read it
it works both ways but l also see your point & admire you for it 

[letsgetiton!]

i am not going to carve up my membership and never will
i will always support my club, but that does not mean i have to agree with teh way things are done and i am entilted to vent my spleen on here, radio or elsewhere

what we now realise that the miller/wallace combo does not worse

either miller goes or both go

we cant go fwd teh way things are.

last night was a wake up call for terry and teh club

if terry seriously believes he is on the right path with his game plan coaching style etc, he is wrong.

terry has till rnd 22 to show us he is changing his style, become more hands on luike rocket eade, get his hands dirty/

whats with this tiger tafe, u cant learn footy in a class room, get out on teh ground and do it as eade has.

terry does not do enough, full stop.

he has a reputaion of being organised and thorough etc , who cares we want to see him on the track instructing not sitting back watching

lift ur game terry and miller leave now

[DallasCrane]

Well said Gordon, I agree with the thrust of what you are saying, however there is a couple of points I'd like to make;

LOYALTY: I don't think there is a problem with loyalty as such, what you are saying our fans do, is IMO a lack of respect for them.
The best way to measure that, in the cool light of day, is what would you say to that person if you saw them in person:
For example, if X saw Deledio walking down Moorabool street, would he say to his face that he is 'soft', a 'receiver', and 'should be traded'?

When I write things about players on here, I try to imagine what I would say if I saw them in person, and no not if I saw them at the pub after i've had 15 beers, it's what I would say to them if I saw them at lunchtime or something!

PERSPECTIVE: I wouldn't be bagging Richmond fans for lack of perspective, it is actually quite hard for most fans under the age of about 40 to have any perspective because they have never seen the club be successful!

[mightytiges]

What makes things worse is each new coach and admin has to carry the baggage of the past 25 years of failure with them. Even if every decision they made was faultless they've still got the inenvious task of saying to supporters to be patient when the supporters have already waited two decades to follow a decent and successful football team. Every club that hasn't won a flag in gawd knows how long suffers from this. Geelong fans before this weekend were after blood. However our situation is harder because we've only made the finals twice in that time and supporters have been burnt by false dawns far too often in the past.

 

[Life goes on]

Can tell you something about managing people and coaching.
If you dont set yourself up properly from day one.
You will fall over.
Coaches are managers and without the right people and foundation, you wont succeed, fact.
As you are all now seeing, Terry didnt set himself up properly and is paying the price.
Youth policy should of been from day 1, NOT 2 years and 6 rounds later
There has been mistake after mistake eg Recruiting, game plans, Gaspar and Kellaway sagas etc.

[mightytiges]

Can tell you something about managing people and coaching.
If you dont set yourself up properly from day one.
You will fall over.
Coaches are manages and without the right people and foundation, you wont succeed, fact.
As you are all now seeing, Terry didnt set himself up properly and is paying the price.
Youth policy should of been from day 1, NOT 2 years and 6 rounds later
There has been mistake after mistake eg Recruiting, game plans, Gaspar and Kellaway sagas etc.

True Jack but is that Terry's fault or the Board's. The Club has admitted it didn't set up properly with Terry first arrived and blamed lack of money and resources. Hi Terry, we want you to go down the youth path as much as possible but just a reminder that we made a $2 million loss, we are $5 million in debt, our membership and crowd numbers have fallen because we have been forever losing, and we can't afford more youngsters/rookies like other clubs have due to our financial situation. So make sure you keep the side competitive.

[Moi]

Well said, Gordon 

Don't think he's saying not be upset about the result - he surely is.  Just perspective and step back a bit after a few days and reassess the situation without the emotion.  More having a crack at the egos who would like to see the club fail so they could say they were right - pathetic, even if what they're talking about is true wouldn't you think?

We lost because we had a very youthful team with no leaders.  The crux of our problem is leadership, but it's also to try and get as many kids of the field while we "still have leaders of a sort".  In a couple of years the leaders will be the Deledios and Foleys because we will have absolutely no seniors worth their salt left.  I think they'd be great leaders in normal situation, but pretty soon they'll be leading a team full of kids in nappies. 

Can't be helped, but Terry is trying darn hard to address that horrible scenario by making sure everyone on our list gets the games under the belt ASAP and at the same time finding out who has the heart to go on. 

Krak showed he was up to it by going back to the seconds and putting the hard decision back on Wallace to play him again.  Hopefully, he will get a game this week and drop those that didn't.  The year will hopefully pan out in a similar vain - is just a year of who will be there and who won't be, testing courage and character.  I reckon he's learnt a lot about the group just in that very game.  So while it was horrible in most ways, it was a pretty good learning curve I reckon.

Yes, I have blind faith, but I see no other way at the moment because this is the situation we're faced with, and wouldn't matter who was coaching us, the same problems would still be there.

[WilliamPowell]

The year will hopefully pan out in a similar vain - is just a year of who will be there and who won't be, testing courage and character.  I reckon he's learnt a lot about the group just in that very game.  So while it was horrible in most ways, it was a pretty good learning curve I reckon.

Yes, I have blind faith, but I see no other way at the moment because this is the situation we're faced with, and wouldn't matter who was coaching us, the same problems would still be there.

Exactly x 2 Moi