Can Richmond still be a contender this season?

Where will Richmond finish at the end of the H&A season?

  • 1-4

    Votes: 26 19.8%
  • 5-8

    Votes: 60 45.8%
  • Miss Finals

    Votes: 45 34.4%

  • Total voters
    131
  • Poll closed .
Jan 3, 2012
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The team disposal count has literally never been relevant.
It can tell a bit about game style but quality? No.

Tom “ Mr 100 disposals a game” Mitchell is testimony to that, but the muppet commentators umpires fawn over him, they have no class or quality
 
Feb 4, 2008
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Has yesterday’s performance/ result changed anyone’s prediction about where 🐯 will finish?


No.

Two things last night did is showed there is excellent spirit in team, and that we have some good youngsters who play uncomplicated and very watchable footy.

So far though we have beaten Carlton and a team who beat Carlton playing away interstate by 16 points. The form around Carlton does not look strong. They have been well held by us, Sydney and Port. Sydney have been beaten by Melbourne, Adelaide, Bulldogs, none of whom have done much else of merit unless you count the Bulldogs running over an injury riddled Hawks in the last term, when they looked out of the game to 3/4 time. Port beat a malfunctioning Melbourne in round one and it seemed impressive at the time, but looked at against the Demons next two efforts it doesn't look so good.

In our favour, we may have key experienced players returning, and last night's win may afford the club the opportunity to be a little more conservative with the timing of their comebacks. We also have Lynch improving all the time and the team and he becoming more accustomed to each other. We also have exciting youngsters with tricks, though they all have much to prove yet, and the season will get long and arduous for them.

Against us is the fact Rance is gone, Martin has looked a shadow of his former self, our previously successful gameplan needs tweaking on the fly, Cotchin and Houli have soft tissue problems which often recur after you get to a certain age, and we are currently running with Astbury, Grimes and Broad to cover opposition tall forwards with no viable plan B in case of injury or one of those being badly outmatched. I like the club's longer prospects but this year it will be a decent effort to make the top 8. Since the introduction of the week's break pre finals, it has been shown that anyone who makes finals hitting form at the right time can go all the way no matter what position they finish. Winning the 10 or 11 more matches we need from 18 remaining games will likely require winning about 2 out of 3 matches played against the likes of Swans, Melbourne, Essendon, Bulldogs, Crows, Lions, Hawks, Roos etc. So it will be a good effort just to scrape 12 or 13 wins together. I don't see us making top four.
 
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rideclutch

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I dunno about contender (though it looks a pretty open year?) but I definitely had us marked wrong; we're top 8 on form.

Watching the Sydney Stack highlights reminded me just how awful we played in that match. It should've been an 80pt belting, so to be still in the game at 3QT was strange. Considering what GWS did this week, that form now looks pretty strong.

See if we can avoid any more injuries, keep an even keel W/L's and who knows.
 
Gotta say we looked better than I thought we would this week. Early '17 was full of the kind of facepalm moments we saw in the last quarter that kept Port in it. Eradicate those - as a stable year of footy should do - and we look a whole lot better. Also super excited by the promise the kids we're playing are showing. What we showed yesterday was an intensity and belief that I thought was missing last year.

Having said that Port is looking a middling to lower ladder team. Still think we'll miss top 4 and line ball for the 8, but damn if I don't like what I'm seeing. Make the 8 and who knows .. after all ... we won away!
 
Nov 11, 2010
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I think we needed a mix up and fate has given us the foot up the arse we needed. Our game plan had been figured out and our players getting stale. Losing our best players and structural players has allowed us to play players that would never have been given the opportunities they have if disaster hadn't struck - Stack, Ross, Bolton, Baker and Balta. Other players have also been allowed to step up instead of taking the back seat - Lynch, Grimes and Higgins.

The amazing thing for me is that we are still in a relatively good position. 2-2 still gives us a platform to build on and with Sydney (average this year), Melbourne (underperforming) and winnable games up to at least round 12 we could easily emerge from this half of the season a stronger team than we were at the end of last year.

My team for the year would be -

FB: Vlaustin Astbury Stack
HB: Houli Grimes Broud
C: Ross Prestia McIntosh
HF: Butler Reiwoldt Rioli
FF: Caddy Lynch Bolton
Foll: Nankervis, Cotchin, Martin

Int: Balta, Lambert, Higgins, Graham

I think we are actually going to end up being a more powerful team this year leading into the finals series than we were in 2018. We may not win as many games while we find players and improve our game plan but will be a more powerful team when it counts.

The best thing is that we are finding players to make us contenders for the future not just the present.
 
Aug 27, 2009
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Played interstate twice against teams we failed to beat last year at their grounds for 1 and 1, once we settle down we will be better overall than 2018 imo, although we may not win as many games, our depth will have improved.

Dimma said we peaked too early last year so we may be still a little underdone this year, we have been in all our games in the last quarter after losing players during the game in each loss and having Dusty way down on form.
Only Rance is out for the season, big loss but we are more than one player.
 

roacheee

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Played interstate twice against teams we failed to beat last year at their grounds for 1 and 1, once we settle down we will be better overall than 2018 imo, although we may not win as many games, our depth will have improved.

Dimma said we peaked too early last year so we may be still a little underdone this year, we have been in all our games in the last quarter after losing players during the game in each loss and having Dusty way down on form.
Only Rance is out for the season, big loss but we are more than one player.
agreed
if,
1. dusty contributes consistently
2. balta's tank improves thru the season
3. we start getting thru games without being a man down on rotations
4. ccj, soldo or another tall stakes their claim

then,
watch out for our last seven games at the g
 

tony__montana

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Jan 25, 2018
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We often gave up more possessions but it wasnt by well over 100 a game, and we were also getting a much better spread of input from all players than we are this year

It’s also been exacerbated by the new short kicking possession style football every side thinks is the new and improved way to play.
 
Feb 9, 2009
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It’s also been exacerbated by the new short kicking possession style football every side thinks is the new and improved way to play.
Worked for Collingwood and gws. They picked us apart through the middle playing like that. You give good teams 100 more disposals and you're not gonna do well most the time. Port are s**t.
 

tony__montana

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Worked for Collingwood and gws. They picked us apart through the middle playing like that. You give good teams 100 more disposals and you're not gonna do well most the time. Port are s**t.

Got us at the right moment, we won’t let them have that much time and space again - cannot wait for the return matches
 
Dec 18, 2005
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I think we can be a better team than last year. We have obviously started the season a bit flat. We were 3 goals down at 3/4 time against coll and gws. Injuries caused us to run out of legs in the last quarters of those two games. But we also learnt that our midfield wasn’t big enough, Nank needed back up and two small forwards weren’t working hard enough. We have answered those problems quickly although we should have played them from Round 1. Ross, Baker, Balta are the ones who we needed. Bolton and Stack are bonuses. We’ll be hard to beat again from now on
 
Aug 27, 2009
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Worked for Collingwood and gws. They picked us apart through the middle playing like that. You give good teams 100 more disposals and you're not gonna do well most the time. Port are s**t.
Yes and no, we bought pressure against Port whereas against the other two we were at our worse for years.
Chippy little kicks actually will allow more turnovers if our pressure is high enough.

The work rate on Saturday after the first quarter was right up there, players were willing to push across the ground to stop Ports spread, port may be s**t but we didnt beat them away last year and against Coll and GWS we were in it before injuries.

Not giving up on us yet.
 

brett15

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Aug 8, 2010
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It's interesting Lynch and Prestia lifted with the inclusion of Caddy. These three started their careers together at Gold Coast so the synergy they have is already established.

We are as good as any side 5th and down with the Eagles, Collingwood, GWS and Geelong being current top 4
 
Feb 9, 2009
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Yes and no, we bought pressure against Port whereas against the other two we were at our worse for years.
Chippy little kicks actually will allow more turnovers if our pressure is high enough.

The work rate on Saturday after the first quarter was right up there, players were willing to push across the ground to stop Ports spread, port may be s**t but we didnt beat them away last year and against Coll and GWS we were in it before injuries.

Not giving up on us yet.
Thing is I don't think it's a commitment thing, purely because of the prelim last year. Surely the boys would have been putting in 100% in a prelim. I just reckon th3 best midfields have us covered but our pressure allows us to beat good midfield
We could very easily be the next Geelong, good enough during the year but not against the best.
 
What a ride it is to read through the 7 pages of this thread.

Of course we're contenders. 18 teams are. (Well, 17. Carlton is always the exception.)

* me. Do we learn nothing? We were meant to be flying in 2016. We were meant to be cooked in 2017. There are no crystal balls.

The other comment I'll make about this thread is there are a large number of posters who've forgotten that there's 18 Tigers on the field - not one. Dusty might never get back that 2017 form. Cotch never played like he did in 2012 again. And the team was better for it.
 

JAKLAUGHING

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TASMANIAN DEBILS!!!
The other comment I'll make about this thread is there are a large number of posters who've forgotten that there's 18 Tigers on the field - not one. Dusty might never get back that 2017 form. Cotch never played like he did in 2012 again. And the team was better for it.
Don't say that...
giphy.gif
 

Tiger08

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Worked for Collingwood and gws. They picked us apart through the middle playing like that. You give good teams 100 more disposals and you're not gonna do well most the time. Port are s**t.

Good luck doing that on a windy day at the G in September. That was a pity about last years prelim.. not a breath of wind.. even big Mason could judge the flight.

It's absolutely the trend this year though.
 
Worked for Collingwood and gws. They picked us apart through the middle playing like that. You give good teams 100 more disposals and you're not gonna do well most the time. Port are s**t.
Yep, theyre not top four but beat Melb first up and are probably a three goal better side at home than at the g.
We pinched it but stiff sh.t if we win another two on the road this year thats three more than last year.
At the end of the H/A there’ll be about 4/5 teams with a real expectation of winning it.
I reckon we’ll be one of em, we just gotta get at least two wins where we really pump em by 8-10 gaols and get the percentage better than average
 
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