I thought that when TW was appointed that the 5 years would see us as premiers or at the very least fighting for one. Not just trying to scape into the finals in his last year.
Our past administrations have been ruthless and would have sacked him by now because average performances were not tolerated at the Richmond footy club regardless of how it made us look, now we sit back and bide time till his contract runs out.
What for!
bigtone, you seem to have had very lofty expectations on the teams performance in the last 5 years. Fighting for a flag was never a realistic option when you are rebuilding a list. To be honest, I always felt finals would be a big stretch in five years unless the senior players played out of their skin.
I think Terry has done what he said he would - turnover the list and rebuild the list with youth. There is continued speculation that he had the team overperforming in the first year which hindered this process plus some trade choices which is argued also did some damage but ultimately the list is a completely different makeup than it was when he arrived.
I believe when will struggle to make the finals next year too. I think with the older players retiring it will not be until 2011 that we will make the finals and start to see some (to use a Terryism) 'sustained success'.
Is it time for TW to go - probably. We need a more team orienated, defensive, physical game style to compliment our run and carry and I'm not convinced Terry can give is that. But in saying that I don't think TW should be sacked or stood down when we have publically stated that we will make the call midyear based on a potential final appearance. To do so would take us back to the bad old says when rbuilding was out of the question because every coach had to have immediate success or be sacked. No quality coach would want to enter that environment - thus the Spud.
Our past administrations are nothing to revere. In fact they, and our rabid supporters, and the exact reason we have never attempted to rebuild and make the hard long term decisions. They have demanded premierships from coaches and thought that it was the coach that was the problem rather than the playing group.
The facts are that coaches are only as good as the players they have and Richmond has traded and made quick fixes for decades, never affording the club the time to groom young draft picks or giving the coach the licence to start again.
Sacking TW is exactly what the media and opposition supporters would love us to do so if for that reason alone I say we keep our word, wait until we can no longer make the finals and there by showing any future coaches we have changed and are an attractive option for the future.
If TW pulls out a miracle and we make the finals then he should to stay - but he still deserves the time to try.
We owe hime that much
Stripes