We are the NZ Knights of the AFL

[Ramps]

We are like the New Zealand Knights in the A League or the old Morwell Falcons of the old NSL- we are dead set rabble and whilst it hurts to say this - we are making up the numbers in the AFL. I cant see how or where - we are going to get our next AFL premiership from. It seems a very very long way away. As a club we are incapable of drafting properly, not smart enough in trading properly, absolutely deplorable in developing players, the club leadership cant see the forest from the trees and havent realised how bad we really were- and they probably dont even now, we have a losing culture, we make excuses, we have rabble facilities, the coaches look at false pride as being a good thing- when we needed to stay down the bottom in 2005 and 2006 they got cheap wins and stuffed us by getting the club to the middle of the ladder- 9th again, the supporters have basically given up hope. At the end of 2004 most of us believed we would turn the corner, at the end of 2007 we will be back where we were in 2004 - except we will have worse picks at the draft and the draft will be average.

Richmond needs a revolution. Everything has to be changed in the football department and there need to be some big names finally get the lemon and sarce of the list. But we all know the big names will still be there, and we will still be crap - because for 25 years no one at Richmond has had the balls to clean the joint out. Drafting has been deplorable, 2004 was average, 2005 was poor, 2006 was average. Before 2004 our drafting was a comedy show. We are going nowhere as a club.

The board have to clean the joint out because we are running out of time, the longer this goes on the less chance there is that the Deledio Tambling generation will be likely to find success. We need a deadset superstar in the PSD. Judd wont leave, but if he did- we should pay $1 million a season to get him. RICHMOND NEEDS HOPE! and we dont have any at the moment. All we seem to be is HOPELESS!

[Hellenic Tiger]

Ramps agree with your sentiments and emotions however Morwell were in the NSL from 1992 till about 2000 and they did make the finals twice. Thats alot better than 2 finals series in the last 25 years that us Tiger fans have had to deal with. So although Morwell were a lowy NSL club equating them to Richmond is flattering towards the Tigs.

Unfortunantely some decisions at the end of 2004 that we thought were taking us forward into a new era have if anything probably sent us further back. TW came as the Messiah and right now all he is, is one of those religious preachers with their programs on at 4 am. All talk no action thanks for the money your patronage and your support and see you all in hell.

[the_boy_jake]

I watched the WCE-Lions game on Saturday night. It dawned on me that Brisbane are building another premiership team and we are building another team that will make a token finals appearance or two.

They have a standout CHF and leader, some very good young midfielders - Stiller, Rischitelli, Drummond a couple of good talls down back, especially Jason Roe who looks every bit the modern defender. Some good senior players to learn from - Power, Lappin, Black etc are consumate professionals. The Akers of this world are not tolerated.

In my mind we are another iteration of the cycle away from being a premiership team. The best that we can hope for is that our current young players will develop into reliable pros - like the Lions or Bulldogs (Grant, Darcy, West, Smith, Johnson etc) senior core and THEN we can start looking at building a premiership side.

It seems to me that even though we are in a similar predicament, their recruitment, player development and culture is a whole lot better than ours.

[Hellenic Tiger]

Its the environment created by those in charge.
Brisbane whilst acknowledging their three peat recognised quickly they needed to go down this path to ensure they would have similar opportunities for premiership glory within or close to a specified timeframe planned by club insiders. Furthermore the people employed at their club take a great deal of personal pride in their work and will not be phased by poor results as they know they have the plans in place that in the future will reap the rewards that they had planned for initially.
People at Richmond tend to tip to around the real issues that make up the day to day operations of the footy team and that is
The Coach who is happy to put a positive spin on everything and expect the supporters to keep on swallowing whatever chaff they throw at us. Then he shamelessly self promotes himself to the extent of neglecting why he has the coaching job in the first place and continues on the same old rhetoric of personal gratification and personal gain when he has 0 premierships 0 grand finals in ten years of coaching and has not finished a season at the Richmond Football Club with more wins than losses.
The Playing List. Severe deficiencies and holes in a group that may fall through the cracks once in a while and make the finals but due to our the fans lack of seeing success we will get blinded by a prelim or 2nd semi appearance and worship players like Gods and therefore the board will act accordingly and provide them with overpriced and over inflated contracts eg Ben Holland in 2001.
Thirdly to many cooks spoil the broth. A basic summation that many people within the inner sanctum at Richmond tend to want to blow their own trumpet first rather than having at heart the interests and needs of the Richmond Football Club.

Now looking at that and the success Matthews has attained compared to Wallace who takes more pride in their job overall?
If it bleeds you can kill it
If it bronzes just ignore it.

[wayne]

It is going to take a very long time, lets just hope guys like Deledio, Foley and Riewoldt turn out to be like West, Johnson and Grant for the bulldogs, not Gaspar, Bowden and Tivendale Mk II. These boys might not see a Grand Final in their time at the tigers, but I hope that they are as respected and idolised as the 3 doggie players. ie. They don't tolerate half assed performances, they lead from the front, stand up when required and they embody what Richmond used to be all about.

It is going to take a long time to remove all the cancer.

I think at this stage we have a Dr. Nick Riveria in charge, the cheapo dodgy doctor, but he's started to cut some of the cancer out. Gaspar and Kellaway are gone, players as young as Pettifer already have symptoms. We're soon hopefully going to be able to afford Dr. Hibbert and complete the operation, hopefully cure guys who are starting to get the disease and get us back to a powerhouse team.

[Hellenic Tiger]

It is going to take a very long time, lets just hope guys like Deledio, Foley and Riewoldt turn out to be like West, Johnson and Grant for the bulldogs, not Gaspar, Bowden and Tivendale Mk II. These boys might not see a Grand Final in their time at the tigers, but I hope that they are as respected and idolised as the 3 doggie players. ie. They don't tolerate half assed performances, they lead from the front, stand up when required and they embody what Richmond used to be all about.

It is going to take a long time to remove all the cancer.

I think at this stage we have a Dr. Nick Riveria in charge, the cheapo dodgy doctor, but he's started to cut some of the cancer out. Gaspar and Kellaway are gone, players as young as Pettifer already have symptoms. We're soon hopefully going to be able to afford Dr. Hibbert and complete the operation, hopefully cure guys who are starting to get the disease and get us back to a powerhouse team.

Maybe Dr Hibbert may not be able to do it.
We might need the high priced Doctors at the Mayo Clinic where Mr Burns went for his check up
to get all the chemotherapy/radiotherapy we need to get rid of the cancer.
As long as we don't leave Homer and his buddies in charge lol.