It was almost a case of popping the champagne this week at OER when we heard the news that Kyle Archibald had been given the green light commence his 2004 Season. From everyone from OER - best of luck Kyle.

Rory Hilton who suffered ACL injury the other week against the Bombers has had his knee reconstruction. All reports say the surgery went extremely well. Rory has spent the past couple of weeks at home in Wodonga with his family and is due back in Melbourne shortly.

It may have just been the question on everyones mind leading up to our game against the Demons. Why was Shane Tuck dropped and Adam Houlihan selected?

Team balance and the need for an experienced goal kicker was one answer given to Player and Coaching Link members at a pre-match function. I'll let people make their own judgement on the success of this selection decision.

More game time was the plan for Thomas Roach on Sunday but it didn't eventuate. Tom was given just 22 minutes of game time compared to the 101 minutes he got the previous week. I am not sure about anyone else but my theory is "if you pick the kids, play the kids".

The answers to the trivia questions from the 12/7/04 are:

Emmett Dunne 115 games, Dick Clay 213 games, Royce Vardy 34 games and Brett Mahony 2 games

This weeks question (and I have been told they are too easy so this one is a toughie):

Who am I?

Answer next Week

If you have got the answer to this week's trivia question.

Feel free to drop me a line at:

WilliamPowell@oneeyed-richmond.com

Or post it on the forum!

And my final word...

Another week and we get more drama and trouble than any other side in the competition. I raised the question when Ian Campbell resigned "where do we go from here?" and I find myself asking it again.

The current Board upheaval is without doubt an emotional issue. I think most people would know my thoughts as they appear on our Forum. I also don't like turning this page into an editorial but it is hard not to when we keep lurching from one disaster to another.

I would suggest that we need to do something that on the surface would appear to be easy but history tells us we really struggle with. What is it? UNITY. I can honestly say I don't know the last time we were actually united. By united I mean everyone working towards the same things. There seems to be so many people with their own agendas and you can't help but feel that they don't have the Club's best interests at heart.

Why can't there be a compromise? Why can't the alternate ticket wait until the end of the year? Clinton Casey has offered January, the Schwab ticket wants an election by September. Why can't we have it in December? How hard is it to compromise in the best interests of our Club?

There has been alot of debate regarding the impact the board fight will have on attracting a new coach. On 3AW tonight (27/7/04) Gerard Healy and David Parkin (on Ch 7) have both said a challenge will have a determental impact on the RFC attracting the best candidate available. David Parkin made a very important point. Richmond started ahead of the field in the coaching race we now risk falling behind the pack. Can we afford to? NO. Remember it is our Club and it is time for the best interests of the Club to come to the fore.