Better times ahead for Tigers: Pettifer

[one-eyed]

Better times ahead for Tigers: Pettifer
2:05 PM Sun 2 September, 2007
By Jason Phelan
for richmondfc.com.au

A BRAVE effort from Richmond just failed to get the premiership points on Saturday, but Kayne Pettifer saw enough during the match to suggest better things await the Tiger faithful in 2008.

“We turned the ball over late, which is always costly, and missed opportunities from Browny (Nathan Brown) and myself also hurt,” Pettifer said after the 10-point loss to St Kilda.

“We’ll go away disappointed, but the last month of football has been very positive for us.

“They had a lot to play for with it being Fraser Gehrig and Andrew Thompson’s last game, but it was very disappointing in the end. They came out and hit us hard early, but I thought to our credit we fought back in the second and third quarters. There were some good signs there for us.

“It’s the most goals I’ve every kicked in a season, which is good. I missed a crucial one which probably cost us when we were nine points up, but you take the good with the bad. I kicked a few, which is good for myself to finish the year off on a high.”

Pettifer felt the side had turned a corner a month or so back and can enter the off-season with plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

“I think half the list is under the age of 21,” he said.

“We’ve got a very young list, but I think over the last six weeks the senior guys have really stood up. When we’re playing well, it really does help the young guys. They come in with a lot more confidence and do what they do.

“It’s a very tough caper, but we’ve got nine or 10 weeks off now to relax. It’s obviously been very disappointing for the football club and our supporters, but I thought we showed a bit over the last six weeks with a couple of good wins over Collingwood and the Bombers.”

The Tigers will be bolstered by some young talent from the top end of the coming national draft, but Pettifer maintained there is plenty of improvement to come from within the current playing group.

“We’ll need a big pre-season with all the boys coming out hard and getting some weight on some of the younger guys,” he said.

“We need to get Troy Simmonds back - he’s been a huge loss this year. When you get Mark Coughlan back in the midfield, you’ve got two first-round picks back.

“'Cogs' has been training very well, and once we get him back, he’s a great leader and a very inspirational player. Troy was obviously a very good ruckman for us last year, so we get those two back and it’s a huge bonus for the team.”

http://richmondfc.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsId=50300

[Tigermonk]

more blah blah from the players how good they gunna be

hope next year they cutdown on the media tripe & do what they preach

cya next year Petts

[bluey_21]

KISS --> don't talk, do, like the kangas have

worked there arse off since last year to get where they are now. No one, including me, gave them any credit but they have doubters wrong through hard work 

best of luck in the finals kangas 

[Tigermonk]

KISS --> don't talk, do, like the kangas have

worked there behind off since last year to get where they are now. No one, including me, gave them any credit but they have doubters wrong through hard work 

best of luck in the finals kangas 

l never bothered to do a ladder this year
l had thought we play finals but to get the spoon is very depressing
you work hard you get rewards
they wanted to lynch Laidley after 5 games
Carey bagged the poo out of them & to there credit they proved everyone wrong 
they could go all the way they do have premiership players in that side that could lift them more & a return of Thompson might boost them
1 player cant think of his name wont be playing next week he give out a ripper hit on the chin that floored that player what a punch 

[Mopsy]

KISS --> don't talk, do, like the kangas have

worked there behind off since last year to get where they are now. No one, including me, gave them any credit but they have doubters wrong through hard work 

best of luck in the finals kangas 

I was thinking exactly the same thing Bluey while reading the article - 'What's this nine or ten weeks off stuff.'

[mightytiges]

KISS --> don't talk, do, like the kangas have

worked there behind off since last year to get where they are now. No one, including me, gave them any credit but they have doubters wrong through hard work 

best of luck in the finals kangas 

I was thinking exactly the same thing Bluey while reading the article - 'What's this nine or ten weeks off stuff.'

As part of the players EBA agreement they get 8 weeks off minimum. The cubs come back first then a week later the mid-age players followed by a week later the "oldies" like Richo IIRC.

Agree with bluey. Us doing a preseason similar to the Roos last year would do wonders. A number of Tigers don't or can't work hard enough during games. 

[WilliamPowell]

Agree with bluey. Us doing a preseason similar to the Roos last year would do wonders. A number of Tigers don't or can't work hard enough during games. 

Absolutely spot on - get some hard work into them so they work harder.

Get them going now during the finals and then gvie them a break after the GF bring them back and then give them another break. Not only did this work for the Kangas but the Pies as well - they are playing finals (wont last longer thna this week I reckon) so....

Let's get going