I could not post the link to this article .It's from the Adelaide Advertiser By Dale Lewis.
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AS RICHMOND fans struggle to come to terms with the disappointment of another wasted year, it's time to ask the question: What should be made of pin-up boy, full forward Jack Riewoldt?
With the Tigers' finals aspirations well and truly buried for another year, Riewoldt needs to be sat down and told to pull his head in.
I am a massive fan of Jack but, like a lot of Richmond fans, I have run out of patience.
While it would be unfair to blame him for the Tigers missing out on the finals yet again, he needs to have a long, hard look at himself and what he brings to the table and the way he carries himself on the field.
Riewoldt has kicked 47 goals so far this season - an average of 2.76 per game.
His best and most consistent period came during rounds six to 10 when he kicked a total of 23 goals which included bags of six and eight against the Hawks and the Saints.
It's no surprise this coincided with the Tigers' best period of the season, yielding four wins and one loss, featuring bags of 8.3 against the Saints and 6.2 against Hawthorn as well as 4.2 and 4.4 in rounds six and seven against Port and Sydney.
Richmond has lost nine games this season by 21 points or less, the past three by less than a goal. In those nine games Riewoldt has kicked 16 goals at an average of 1.77 goals per game.
Imagine if Jack had kicked one more goal in each of those games and been somewhere near his best in the others and the Tigers' season of woe could have been the breakout year for which the club and its fans have long been waiting.
He will most probably end up kicking 60-odd goals. Not a bad effort but for someone of his talent that total should be somewhere in the 80s.
At his brilliant best he is unstoppable, as shown in his breakout season of 2010 where he kicked 78 goals to win the Coleman Medal.
Injuries hampered him in 2011 yet he still managed to kick 62 goals despite a failing body that saw him have five surgeries during the off-season.
But then there is is the other Jack. The petulant one we are seeing on a far more frequent basis.
The one who Tigers fans are starting to turn on, giving him unflattering comparisons with club great Matthew Richardson.
The similarities between bad Jack and Bad Richo are clear but, in Richo's defence, at least during his petulant best he always looked like he was having a crack.
The same can't be said of bad Jack.
While good Jack draws the footy to him, creates contests in the air and on the ground, brings others in to the game and looks genuinely interested in the team goals, bad Jack looks more like a big sook, forever whinging and whining to umpires after giving away undisciplined free kicks.
Getting on the lead appears to be an afterthought as he continues to try to outbody and outmuscle his direct opponents.
It was rare a fortnight that went by in 2010 that he didn't supply us with a mark of the week contender. This year those moments have been very few and far between. And now, being in his sixth year of AFL football, he needs to be far better.
Riewoldt is an 85-100 goal-a-season full forward who is not living up to his potential
