No. 12 - Matthew Richardson

[Fishfinger]

  Interesting point i never thought about how damaging Richo's kicking out of defence may be. Which makes me agree with stripes that a wing position may be a good spot.

Been done. Played a blinder the first week, then was absolutely pantsed by Riewoldt the next. Is too unaccountable (read zero  ) to his opponent to play wing or defence.
I don't mind him going down to block attacks in the last few minutes of a quarter or having a run up around the middle for 15 minutes, no more than that though.

[mightytiges]

Richo is one of my favourite players and always has been but I think for the sake of the teams future we need him to move further up field.

I'm with you Stripes. Move the big fella out to a HFF where he can use his strengths. I can't see Richo developing into a Alistair Lynch-type lobbed in the goalsquare. That's never been his style and while he did kick 60 goals in that role under Frawley it didn't help the structure of the side and made us too predictable. Richo's athleticism while running direct opponents off their feet is his main strength. While he can stay mostly injury-free which he has the past 3 years and still run then there's a spot in the side for him. It's not like he suffers from repetitive soft-tissue injuries as Cambo did was towards the end of his career when his body had had enough

he will still hog and and get in everyones way even on the hff. richo really thinks that RFC means the richo football club, its all bout him

Richo hasn't played permanently on a HFF since he was young (under Northey) and he never got in the way then.   

[Hellenic Tiger]

Intrinsic to our plan for success is Richo.
Without him our scoring options are minimal to say the least.
Look at 2004 under Spud the Dud. We kicked 100 points once for the entire season. Ironically in a game when "The Great Man" kicked 10 and he kicked 65 goals in a season where we averaged about 10 goals a game. Without him we would have averaged an even more paltry figure.
Richo is still good enough to take the best tall defender in the opposition side and still good enough to be in the competiotions elite in taking contested marks. His fitness and endurance is amazing and given he was in a side that had quality ball use and hence quality delivery he would be a centurion goalkicker. People remember 1996?
Can you imagine Richo at full forward in the Essendon sides of 2000 and 2001 the years Lloyd kicked 100+ I reckon Richo would have had 1.5 times the shots Lloyd had for the year with the quality of ball he would have been receiving.
Sure he is frustrating an enigma none of us will fully understand but without him we are much the poorer as a team and I hope in subsequent seasons drafts we look to find someone to fill his shoes.
How can you not love someone who is
Richmond through and through
Passionate
Wears his heart on his sleeve
Bleeds Yellow and Black
Runs Like the Wind
Jumps Like a Gazelle
and Plays with heart and desire in a side where he has more often than not been on the end of hidings from a team perspective not a personal agenda.
If I ever have to agree with Robert Walls on one thing and hope something he says comes true is I hope I am present in the ground to watch him kick 15.
I saw him kick 10 and I am still in awe of that and the memory of that will be cherished forever in what turned out to be a bleak bleak season after that round 8 2004 match.
Richo is a flawed genius but that is the charm of the man. Here's to 300 big games for the RFC Big Fella and A Flag to boot before you are done. You deserve it.

[Mr Magic]

Schulz, Hughes, Riewoldt, Gourdis??

Richo is going to leave a massive hole when he goes based on what we have seen so far and as I said it will be sooner than we think.

In fact it is my single biggest concern as to how we will replace him up front.

It should worry Terry Wallace too because 2011 is a pipe dream without key forwards of quality..

[Darth Tiger]

its time 4 richo to move on

has been a good player 4 us, but now he is dead weight

3 words ... UTTER RIDICULOUS DRIBBLE

It is about time that Richmond listed players earnt their spot in the best 22 to wear the Y&B each week.  Until one of the young guns has consistent GOAL kicking form at Coburg, then Richo can be placed under selection pressure.

Until then forcing a consistent goal kicker that takes the #1 defender each week is pure folly.

[julzqld]

Here, here HT and Darth

Do people forget how many times Richo has been our leading goalkicker and repeatedly one of the best contested marks in the league?  Not bad for a "dead weight".

[{X}]

 

[Francois Jackson]

some of u people haven't got a clue. he is one of the main reasons i go to watch the footy.

in a game where there is only half a dozen personalities left, what will we become once he goes.

he is a dead set champion and ive said it many times before, if the rest of the team just sat back and watched this guy play, run, chase, tackle then we would be in top 8.

unfortunately they dont and we struggle year in year out.

[Mr Magic]

It is about time that Richmond listed players earnt their spot in the best 22 to wear the Y&B each week.  Until one of the young guns has consistent GOAL kicking form at Coburg, then Richo can be placed under selection pressure.

Agree with that.
A 21 or 22 year old key forward needs to be putting pressure on a 33yr olds position in the side.
If they can't do that then move on to the next option because they are not good enough.
No handouts.

[Francois Jackson]

Intrinsic to our plan for success is Richo.
Without him our scoring options are minimal to say the least.
Look at 2004 under Spud the Dud. We kicked 100 points once for the entire season. Ironically in a game when "The Great Man" kicked 10 and he kicked 65 goals in a season where we averaged about 10 goals a game. Without him we would have averaged an even more paltry figure.
Richo is still good enough to take the best tall defender in the opposition side and still good enough to be in the competiotions elite in taking contested marks. His fitness and endurance is amazing and given he was in a side that had quality ball use and hence quality delivery he would be a centurion goalkicker. People remember 1996?
Can you imagine Richo at full forward in the Essendon sides of 2000 and 2001 the years Lloyd kicked 100+ I reckon Richo would have had 1.5 times the shots Lloyd had for the year with the quality of ball he would have been receiving.
Sure he is frustrating an enigma none of us will fully understand but without him we are much the poorer as a team and I hope in subsequent seasons drafts we look to find someone to fill his shoes.
How can you not love someone who is
Richmond through and through
Passionate
Wears his heart on his sleeve
Bleeds Yellow and Black
Runs Like the Wind
Jumps Like a Gazelle
and Plays with heart and desire in a side where he has more often than not been on the end of hidings from a team perspective not a personal agenda.
If I ever have to agree with Robert Walls on one thing and hope something he says comes true is I hope I am present in the ground to watch him kick 15.
I saw him kick 10 and I am still in awe of that and the memory of that will be cherished forever in what turned out to be a bleak bleak season after that round 8 2004 match.
Richo is a flawed genius but that is the charm of the man. Here's to 300 big games for the RFC Big Fella and A Flag to boot before you are done. You deserve it.

u took the words right out of my mouth, awesome post and spot on champ

[Stripes]

It is interesting how people so eagerly jump to the extremes.

Richo is one of my favourite players for his heart, determination, skills and endurance all at 32 years of age. But the for years now we have been too Richo-centric and as a result we have become too predicatable. Look how many opposition defender 'actually' do play on Richo and you can usually count one or two permanent opponents plus 1 or 2 defenders who are continously looking to peel off their players to assist against the big man.

Richo is our best forward and frequently our best player which too me at this stage of our development is concerning. Our backline and midfield shows promise for th future with young players taking more responsibilty to step up in those areas but our forwardline is still very much Richo.

Richo commands the ball and get upset if he is denied it. Richo wants the ball, leads for the ball and takes the ball - he rarely if ever creates room for others to lead into or screens other forwards opponents so they gain a gap on their defender. This is why he is not our captain by now. He is who he is but we can not continue to hope he will change or continue to structure our forwardline the same way and expect different results.

We need to try something different to prepare for the future and perhaps you are right Darth Tiger, we need to wait until our young forwards begin to perform for Coburg but I do think we need to begin to give them more responsibility for the Tigers also.

Having Richo play up on the HFF would still utilize all of his strengths - run, marking, vigour, leading back with the flight of the ball - but make us far less predictable, give our young forwards an opportunity to begin to work together and perhaps allow us to make a smoother tranition into the future. Confidence is the key and when Richo continuely and unconsciously sap that away from our young forwards then perhaps he may need to change roles for the betterment of the team.

Stripes

[Mr Magic]

Having Richo play up on the HFF would still utilize all of his strengths - run, marking, vigour, leading back with the flight of the ball - but make us far less predictable, give our young forwards an opportunity to begin to work together and perhaps allow us to make a smoother tranition into the future. Confidence is the key and when Richo continuely and unconsciously sap that away from our young forwards then perhaps he may need to change roles for the betterment of the team.

I always harp back to the first game we played the Weagles last year with Schulz and Hughes at FF & CHF repectively.
The youngsters did pretty well that day with Richardson playing further up the ground.
Sadly Plough never persevered with that setup and went back to plan A after the Geelong debacle.

'Terry's triangle' aside I am yet to be convinced by any of Wallace's forward line set ups.

16 goals a game? LMAO.

[mightytiges]

16 goals a game? LMAO.

We've only kicked 16 goals or more 13 times and scored 100 points or more 20 times in the past 3 years (66 matches).

Nowdays you need a multipronged attack as the days of a single forward kicking a bag each and every week are gone. Look at Geelong. They've gone from having a fairly weak forward line only 12-18 months ago to being one of the biggest scoring premiership sides (17 100+ scores this year compared to just 6 in 2006). 

[Mr Magic]

one of the biggest scoring premiership sides (17 100+ scores this year compared to just 6 in 2006). 

Wow. Pretty awesome.

So refreshing to see a premiership team that's game plan is based on attack.

No outstanding key forward yet the Cats have so many avenues to goal.

There's your model Plough.

[richmondrules]

There's your model Plough.

Don't think you'll get any argument from TW. He's been pretty consistent in saying that it's Geelong he's modelling us on.