Finals a must for Tigers: March

[one-eyed]

Finals a must for Tigers: March
By Mic Cullen
 12:57 PM Tue 21 October, 2008

RICHMOND president Gary March says the club has to make the finals in 2009 after finishing just outside the eight again this season.

The coach and the president were seen to be in conflict over the assessment of the season after missing the finals with another ninth-placed finish, with March rating it more poorly than Terry Wallace.

Wallace is heading into the final season of a five-year deal, and while March admitted that the ninth spot this year was better than some others had been, he said it was a must for the Tigers to play in September.

"Oh definitely, it is a different ninth. I think the previous times we'd finished ninth we'd probably dropped off in the second half of the season," he told SEN Radio.

"We'd had good starts to the season and our form had waned towards the end of the year and we'd limped towards ninth.

"This year we had a bit of a slow start – we had a tough draw early – but then we really got some momentum and were one of the best-performed sides in the second half of the year."

The Tigers defence was the cornerstone of their resurgence, with talls Will Thursfield, Luke McGuane and Kelvin Moore all having less than 50 games under their belts but progressing nicely.

"We've got a pretty young list now, and a really solid back six now, which is something we probably haven't had in any of those years leading in, so look, we've got a lot of confidence going into next year.

"But we've also got a lot of expectations, and I think all of us around the club are expecting us to push to the finals next year."

The Tigers are without a main sponsor, but March said that wasn't far off being resolved.

"We're very close to finalising our sponsorships at the moment – we've been working hard on that – and we're very confident that we'll certainly be going into next year with all of our sponsorship properties sold.

"We've locked down most of them. We've got a couple to go, but we're in final negotiations with a number of those.

"The club's had another profitable year, and we would expect to make a small profit in 2009, and who knows, if we can get back into the eight, then there's additional revenue streams that come from that."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsid=69137

[Francois Jackson]

you see now were talking.

You tell em Marchy. Finals or bust.

take note all!!!

[Chuck17]

No surprises there, Wallace has said the same thing basically a month or so ago

[Bene Boy]

bleedin obvious isnt it and not just next year  we should be aiming top 8 finish as a minimum anything else is not acceptable

[Moi]

Well, even I'd say we must finish in the eight for Wallace to hold his job.
But even if we did it won't be good enough for many.

[Francois Jackson]

Well, even I'd say we must finish in the eight for Wallace to hold his job.
But even if we did it won't be good enough for many.

Thats stuffin bull poo MOI

if we made finals every year i would be very happy.

anything more than twice in 25 years FFS

[mightytiges]

Why do we always need to make our on-field expectations public every freaking year. This time it's 5 months before the start of the season  ???. What happened to letting our footy do the talking? The Club still can't keep it's gob shut when it should . How about a new philosophy when dealing with the media of keeping our on-field expectations internal and only speak publicly AFTER we actually achieve them  .

The one positive from what March said is that all tiers of our sponsorships look like being filled. Good to hear.

[Hellenic Tiger]

I concur MT
Time to walk the walk not talk the talk
and that goes for everybody at the footy club not the playing coaching staff.
Two finals appearances in 26 years is by no means acceptable. We need to regain our Big 4 Club status as Hawthorn's current success has pushed us to number 5.That's fact.
Club should be seething at this and should be internally seeking to rectify this and not make public statements 5 months from the beginning of the new year.
Hawks had 4 flags the last time we made a grand final and has made finals 19 times to our twice. That's the reality.
Come on Tiges.