Can Richmond still be a contender this season?

[Madtiger2006]

It was very error ridden through the middle and we struggled to be effective going forward. 85 points from 71 inside 50s. That performance wouldn't have stood up against the pies or dons the next day, or other quality teams. It will be good enough against junk teams, we can only hope we play enough of them of make finals.

Looked pretty slippery. Next day was dry. We’ll smash Essendon imo. Pies I believe we can beat with Ross and Caddy giving us much needed size we lacked against them last time. Our forwards are buzzing around now. They barely moved in the first 3 games. Nank can ruck a full game now with support from Balta. We’re a better team than last year. Think we can win it

 

[Tiger71]

It was very error ridden through the middle and we struggled to be effective going forward. 85 points from 71 inside 50s. That performance wouldn't have stood up against the pies or dons the next day, or other quality teams. It will be good enough against junk teams, we can only hope we play enough of them of make finals.

You speak about errors yet the pies and bombers, two clubs you admire have similar clangers like we did in a game with similar pressure/tackling. You mention our game, was "not much" in the win yet ignore we had 5 kids playing all under 20 games against a battle harden midfield, the dee's one strength, while not having our captain, vice captain, half back, and our utility all premiership 22 players, important to our structure not playing....yet we managed with a very young side to generate 71 inside 50's.

It's funny, I am more confident this year then the same time last year. Last year we were to clean early, like the pies are now. We were 5-0 and plowing sides and running rings around them. That form is way to early to have IMO. Injuries have hurt us, unlike you though, I understand that and appreciate how we have managed to actually right the ship and regain form, while being grossly undermanned. Not like the pies just missing plodders with the odd OK player but we during the last 5 weeks have not had our cream, yet we managed to work ourselves out of a hole and get back to winning footy.

That speak volumes about the clubs character and the ability of our teams discipline/game plan sustainability. If you cant or wont regonise that, I am sad for you as all your posting in this thread seems to be looking for fault at our club, thats OK though as all opinions are valuable.

One thing to remember mate, we have a forward who has nearly missed a year of footy 5 games in. We have a forward line still working out how to work with him, its one reason Lynch leads to high and tends to find himself under the ball, he is still picking up how our mids kick inside 50. That will come and when it does, i am going to be stoked that we have the sustainable ability to generate that volume of inside 50's ( which we have done consistently to "better sides"), most teams would kill to have our "issues".

 

[Roachy8]

All media lauding Bombers for a gallant loss yesterday - saying it shows they are legit...
* it, they lost didn't they?

Almost no attention on the fact that we easily accounted for an apparent top 4 favourite pre-season who had massive pressure pumped on them all week - and we did it with 2 and a half of our top 5 players ineffective or absent on the night + another 5 guys that are virtually kids.

My expectations have lifted over the past couple of weeks.

It feels like we will slog out some good wins in the coming weeks before Cotch and hopefully Jack return and build our team form and fitness towards August and September. Ohers like Saints will fall out of the 8 and still others who are 'flying' now will drop away.

We will be there baby and be more than competitive IMO.

 

[Waca Jr]

Finish top 4 and go from there. Last 8 games at G including eagles which is a massive plus. Reckon they will be 9-2 or 8-3 at worse by the bye. Provides the perfect launching pad

 

[tigerdan]

We aren't the great Brisbane, cats or hawks teams, we don't have 5 years of genuine contending. We are stkilda or Collingwood. Good for a few years, content for a couple, then splat. That's not even hindsight, I was saying that last year.

Yeah and two years before that you were saying we were s**t and you should support footscray, remember? You don't have a very good track record mate.

 

[mellowyellow]

Our skill level has certainly dropped off this season, both by foot and hand. The amount of turnovers over the last few weeks (bar the port game) has been poor, particularly from our senior players and will need to be addressed

Still think we're an outside chance rather than genuine contenders and with the loss of Jack for an extended period we may struggle to reach top 4.....but hey, we were ridden off after round 1 so maybe there are plenty of surprises leading up to the finals, but I am enjoying the injection of youth and genuine talent from our new recruits.

 

[Tigerish09]

I think we have problems with teams that have the better midfields. Last year we struggled against them at the end of the season. I think this is in part because the Colonwood strategy is the "keepings off" approach which requires gut running especially from their midfielders to be on the end of the defender kicks so that they cut through any press and set up forward thrusts. This sort of game style is hard to sustain so they will have lulls like they did with us in the Prelim and we managed to get back in the game later on and yesterday when they played the Bummers. Richmond needs to clean up their forward entries and the midfield needs both ways running and greater accountability when they don't have the ball. Do that and Colonwood are very beatable. I think they'll struggle also when they encounter a team that can play "keepings off" and tire their runners out, Richmond unfortunately don't have the foot and hand skills to keep possession of the ball so we'll have to rely on the forward pressure game and hopefully make more of opportunities going forward,

 

[theyellowsash]

Yeah and two years before that you were saying we were s**t and you should support footscray, remember? You don't have a very good track record mate.

Up until 2017 we were s**t, especially so in 2016. Many other people are saying exactly the same as I am, play the argument not the man.

 

[Cdog71]

I think we’re getting better each game and better for longer.
At the end of the H/A ther’ll be 4-5 teams with a serious chance, we’ll be one of em.

 

[Football Tragic]

I think we can absolutely be a contender. In fact, given how we are strengthening our list with the addition of young talent at this stage of the year it gives the individual players, plus the rest of the team around them, time to develop and gel further. The pressure for spots is back like it was it 2017 - if you want to keep your spot you need to follow the game plan and work for it. The middle tier players are lifting in the absence of the older leaders and on the back of the excitement the younger players are creating. All of this at the START OF THE YEAR. This bodes very well for the later part of the year when players return.

I think we'll continue to get injuries and continue to have players shuffle in and out of the team as our current VFL sniff an opportunity to make the AFL team. I want to see Miller get an opportunity. Chol, Moore, Dawkins, CCJ and Menadue. All of them will work their backsides off to get a spot and try and keep it. This has a tremendous effect of the motivation level of the team. Drop Dusty if he's under performing. Leave Cotch and Jack on the sidelines to recover properly. All of these things send a clear message that we are a team and that the system and current performance is more important that past deeds.

I think we will be a better team when it matters this year. I think players like Caddy, Grimes, Edwards and Vlaustin are stepping up to lead the team now. We need as much onfield leadership as we can get particularly without runners now. This is another strength we have over other teams.

I say be excited. Be optimistic, because why it may have looked frightening early on with our injuries, I can see us evolving into an even stronger team in 2019 than the last two years. Even more exciting though, is that this team is only just beginning to develop as a unit. Imagine what they could achieve in the future!

 

[Tiger Toffee]

Up until 2017 we were s**t, especially so in 2016. Many other people are saying exactly the same as I am, play the argument not the man.

It's really pissing you off that we won't be this isn't it
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Yeah but were gonna be 1-8 at the same point

 

[theyellowsash]

It's really pissing you off that we won't be this isn't it
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Yeah I'm totes dev that we aren't losing games

 

[energyquant]

Up until 2017 we were s**t, especially so in 2016. Many other people are saying exactly the same as I am, play the argument not the man.

2016 almost broke me, but in the 5 years from 2012-2016 we had a 55% winning record in the regular season, including two great (15-7) seasons. I'll take that "s**t".

 

[Madtiger2006]

4 of our games have been played in humid conditions. It was slippery on Wednesday too. Pretty much the reason for skill errors

 

[Cdog71]

It was very error ridden through the middle and we struggled to be effective going forward. 85 points from 71 inside 50s. That performance wouldn't have stood up against the pies or dons the next day, or other quality teams. It will be good enough against junk teams, we can only hope we play enough of them of make finals.

Yep, your right.
Not enough conversion and alot of errors. And if you look at it knowing they scored 1.4 after quarter time but where two points down halfway through the third your points well made.
The thing is though we didn’t play against any of the flag favorites and we don’t for a while.
Our gamestyle beat theirs and we won by 43 points.
Alotta people thought collingwood were a mid-tier team last year.

We got time to build, I reckon we are and we will.

 

[Tiges1229]

Will make the 8 but won’t win the flag unfortunately.

 

[partycorolla]

I thought after GWS that we'd be 1-5 or 2-4 so to be 4-2 means that footy can change pretty quickly. What I do know is that if we tackle and harass and persist like we have the last 3 weeks, we will win more games than we lose from here on. That gets us to finals and who knows from there. Our forward line hasn't functioned quite as well as it could but Lynch has only played 6 games. I feel he is better on the move than just sitting it on his head, whereas JR can do both (maybe not at the moment). The more games they play, the better their synergy will be....

 

[Tiger Toffee]

Will make the 8 but won’t win the flag unfortunately.

Why wont we ?

 

[Madtiger2006]

I think we have problems with teams that have the better midfields.

Yeah when our midfield was weaker. I reckon it’s arguably the best in the league now. Cotchin Martin Ross Caddy Prestia Lambert is easily as good as Collingwoods best 6. As for Nank, he was pretty even with Grundy for 3/4. Had no back up and was stuffed in the last 1/4. At least he has back up now. Can’t wait to play them again.

 

[Tigerish09]

Yeah when our midfield was weaker. I reckon it’s arguably the best in the league now. Cotchin Martin Ross Caddy Prestia Lambert is easily as good as Collingwoods best 6. As for Nank, he was pretty even with Grundy for 3/4. Had no back up and was stuffed in the last 1/4. At least he has back up now. Can’t wait to play them again.

Our midfield can win the ball okay but don’t dispose as well as others especially Prestia and Lambert by foot. Still I hope you’re right, we’ll get a better idea when we play against the Dogs who have a decent midfield.

 

[Madtiger2006]

Our midfield can win the ball okay but don’t dispose as well as others especially Prestia and Lambert by foot. Still I hope you’re right, we’ll get a better idea when we play against the Dogs who have a decent midfield.

Dogs not looking that great. Bit strange they are not playing Brad Lynch either

 

[Jono_Hain97]

Absolutely
We can easily be 3-3 after 6, just like 2013. In 2013 we finished 15-7, which missed the 4 that year but would have been enough for 3rd in both 2017 and 2018. Our best footy is still good enough, we’re just not showing much of it right now. Which is fine because last I checked, flags aren’t won in April.

Don't forget 2015. We were 2-4 before finishing 15-7 and upsetting the undefeated freo dockers in round 10

 

[prodigy1311]

I think we miss top 4 but def play finals. On current form of all teams we'll lose 5 more till the end of season barring no surprise win or loss.
crows (in adeliade), cats, giants, eagles & pies. This gives us 15 wins and a 6-8 spot.
I think we can do some damage as long as we are not travelling to Perth

 

[db26]

Season is wide open not really stand out team to be honest besides pies.Difference between us getting top 4 is off course injury to , but we need to improve kicking efficiency and skills that's holding us back for me and accuracy. The chemistry has to be better to between midfield and forward line.

 

[Hounddd]

It's weird, but I feel more confident now than what I did at the back end of 2018. Something Dimma said at the start of the year has stuck in my mind - about not peaking too early, as we did last year.

Don't get me wrong, you want to win, and win well every week and don't wish for any injuries on your stars. But these injuries, have not only forced us to unearth a couple of gems in Ross, Balta and Stack, but will also have Cotch and Riewoldt fresh and raring to go after the bye. These 2 champions in particular, play extremely taxing roles, so a prolonged forced break from the game isn't exactly all doom and gloom.

Given their durability, Cotch and Jack would never have willingly sat out 1/3 of the year. These forced breaks, although not ideal, may well have just re-invigorated this list and developed a hint of unpredictability.

As we've seen over the last few years, flag winners are rarely the team dominating after round 10. Our list was already a contender, and that was before we knew the likes of Stack, Ross, Bolton and Balta could more than cut it with the best.

The hard part is generating enough wins up until the bye to have us within reach of top 4 - which we are evidently more than capable of achieving. After the bye with a hungry Cotch and Jack back in, and a good run with injuries, I still think we are the best team in the comp. The best part is, we are back to being the hunter.

We are certainly still contenders.