Review Grand Final: Richmond vs Greater Western Sydney, MCG, Saturday 28/09/19, 2:30 PM AEST

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Simple game plan. Lots of decent B grade players who play the role. A few A grade stars who stand up 90% of the time. Only missing one A grade player in the end. Getting Lynch was massive. It allowed them a plan B. Last year although they where probably the best side they fell down by not having anyone to support Jack in taking a mark forward of the footy. Despite the success of their 5 small forwards it mad them a touch one dimensional. Yesterday showed just how good they can be with two marking forwards and the odd time a resting ruck. The rest of the side is simply one out, the next man in. They simply have a truck load of good players who are not A grade but love doing there thing and playing the pressure role.
 

JayJ20

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Aug 28, 2016
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This year has to be the worst year from a spectacle perspective. Umpiring, score review, inability to score, congestion etc. How many times have we seen a team kick below 40 points in a whole game this year? Kicking above 120 points is a rarity nowadays.

It's fitting that the grand final was also one of the worst spectacles in recent memory.
 

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pepsi

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This year has to be the worst year from a spectacle perspective. Umpiring, score review, inability to score, congestion etc. How many times have we seen a team kick below 40 points in a whole game this year? Kicking above 120 points is a rarity nowadays.

It's fitting that the grand final was also one of the worst spectacles in recent memory.
The richmond vs west coast game in round 22 was awesome. The prelim between the giants and pies was also great to watch.
 

Macca18

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1983
1988
1990
1994
1995
2000
2007
2015

All abysmal Grand Finals from a neutral perspective.

But 2019 tops ALL of them... and that's saying something.
 
Hope Richmond have broken GWS like they seemed to have done to Adelaide.
Nah, I think they will be back. Too much quality there for them to be knocked out of reckoning.

However, there will be a lot of soul searching over summer, because they simply didn't fire a shot after quarter time.
 

raskolnikov

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Congratulations to Richmond and everything but on reflection last night I don't think I have seen luck/circumstances conspire so much for the Tigers.

- All of GWS, Collingwood and Essendon having dire seasons injury wise;

- West Coast shitting the bed against the Hawks in the last round. Geelong would have got a home final in Geelong against the Eagles you would think. To me it's just wrong that you can make a higher finishing team play their qualifying final at the home of the lower finishing team. The game should have been in Geelong;

- Facing an inexperienced team that hadn't been to the finals in years for the qualifying final. And that team kicking themselves out of the game;

- Playing nine of their last ten games at home at the MCG. Imagine the outcry if the Eagles were given that benefit;

- Collingwood shitting the bed against GWS. Not saying Collingwood would have won but it would have been a lot closer game;

- Getting to play a team that had never played in a Grand Final before and had travelled three weeks in a row just to get to the Grand Final.

As I said, congrats to the Tigers. But boy oh boy wowee did they had the footy gods smiling down on them.
 
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This year has to be the worst year from a spectacle perspective. Umpiring, score review, inability to score, congestion etc. How many times have we seen a team kick below 40 points in a whole game this year? Kicking above 120 points is a rarity nowadays.

It's fitting that the grand final was also one of the worst spectacles in recent memory.

I’ve felt that post Jeff Gieschen aa head of Umpiring, the standard has been generally less s**t than it used to be, although still not good.

This year has been really bad for umpiring.

Remember that *nuckle Shaun Ryan who pretended all the ANZAC day blunders weren’t mistakes? Well, he ended up a Grand Final umpire, following such greats as Scott McLaren as the biggest turds ever to officiate on the last day.

 
the one article i read had the fact that toby doesn't have anything to do with is father buried near the bottom, which is pretty poor by the editor.

Lol since when do editors of newspapers give a flying s**t about telling a balanced story.
 
I’ve felt that post Jeff Gieschen aa head of Umpiring, the standard has been generally less s**t than it used to be, although still not good.

This year has been really bad for umpiring.

Remember that fu**nuckle Shaun Ryan who pretended all the ANZAC day blunders weren’t mistakes? Well, he ended up a Grand Final umpire, following such greats as Scott McLaren as the biggest turds ever to officiate on the last day.



Gets worse every time you watch it.
 

JayJ20

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Aug 28, 2016
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I’ve felt that post Jeff Gieschen aa head of Umpiring, the standard has been generally less s**t than it used to be, although still not good.

This year has been really bad for umpiring.

Remember that fu**nuckle Shaun Ryan who pretended all the ANZAC day blunders weren’t mistakes? Well, he ended up a Grand Final umpire, following such greats as Scott McLaren as the biggest turds ever to officiate on the last day.


I've never been this disillusioned by the direction of the game. First time that I actually fear for the game as a spectacle. I know many people say the same thing every year, but I think the criticism is more valid than ever.

I used to watch every football show program. Nowadays, I don't even watch the pre/post game shows. I hardly watch many neutral games anymore either. What's the point when it is so predictable?

I'm not laying all the blame on Gill and the umpiring department as coaches play a big part in it as well. With every coach trying to implement a defensive zone, the game has become unwatchable. We hardly ever see the high scores we used to see. Richmond in the second half of the year and Brisbane are the only two sides worth watching.
 

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Jesse Custer

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I know you’ve got to make it but gee the tigers have had the two softest grand finals. Playing against two interstate sides and both of them choked.
 

fairbump_playon

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Jun 27, 2014
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I know you’ve got to make it but gee the tigers have had the two softest grand finals. Playing against two interstate sides and both of them choked.
You might recall we generally "choke" when we play the tigers.

Pretty sure it's their high pressure, intensity and team structure that punishes teams who are playing at anything but 100%.
 

calyam

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May 9, 2011
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I've never been this disillusioned by the direction of the game. First time that I actually fear for the game as a spectacle. I know many people say the same thing every year, but I think the criticism is more valid than ever.

I used to watch every football show program. Nowadays, I don't even watch the pre/post game shows. I hardly watch many neutral games anymore either. What's the point when it is so predictable?

I'm not laying all the blame on Gill and the umpiring department as coaches play a big part in it as well. With every coach trying to implement a defensive zone, the game has become unwatchable. We hardly ever see the high scores we used to see. Richmond in the second half of the year and Brisbane are the only two sides worth watching.

I'm in much the same boat. The average football game is much uglier to watch than it was even five years ago. Average scores are down over 10% compared with two years ago. Most Friday night games I'll watch the first quarter and if it doesn't look compelling I'll switch to Netflix. Outside of Essendon games I think I completely watched a half dozen games this year and that doesn't include the Grand Final.

I actually don't enjoy watching Richmond play. I admire their tenacity and the complete buy-in from every player, envy it even, but they make every game so incredibly ugly to watch. They are the spiritual success to Ross Lyon's St Kilda teams in that regard. When you compare Richmond's game style against the other two dominant teams of the past decade - Hawthorn and Geelong - and I know who I'd prefer to watch as a neutral.

At some point other teams are going to try to replicate Richmond's game plan. And I desperately hope that they don't succeed.
 
I'm in much the same boat. The average football game is much uglier to watch than it was even five years ago. Average scores are down over 10% compared with two years ago. Most Friday night games I'll watch the first quarter and if it doesn't look compelling I'll switch to Netflix. Outside of Essendon games I think I completely watched a half dozen games this year and that doesn't include the Grand Final.

I actually don't enjoy watching Richmond play. I admire their tenacity and the complete buy-in from every player, envy it even, but they make every game so incredibly ugly to watch. They are the spiritual success to Ross Lyon's St Kilda teams in that regard. When you compare Richmond's game style against the other two dominant teams of the past decade - Hawthorn and Geelong - and I know who I'd prefer to watch as a neutral.

At some point other teams are going to try to replicate Richmond's game plan. And I desperately hope that they don't succeed.

“If you want entertainment, you could go out and get a bunch of clowns. If obtaining pleasure from matches is the only concern, then you could get rid of all the coaches and let the players go out and get on with it.” - Alan Durban, Stoke City manager 1980

"It was a boring game? If you want to have fun, you should go to the circus. I'm only interested in reaching the semi-finals" - Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus manager 2015

I agree with your point, but with the $$ in modern sport results will always trump aesthetics and so we'll be stuck with average spectacles and half-thought rule changes designed to combat them for quite a while to come...
 

Captain chaos

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Jul 13, 2016
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I'm in much the same boat. The average football game is much uglier to watch than it was even five years ago. Average scores are down over 10% compared with two years ago. Most Friday night games I'll watch the first quarter and if it doesn't look compelling I'll switch to Netflix. Outside of Essendon games I think I completely watched a half dozen games this year and that doesn't include the Grand Final.

I actually don't enjoy watching Richmond play. I admire their tenacity and the complete buy-in from every player, envy it even, but they make every game so incredibly ugly to watch. They are the spiritual success to Ross Lyon's St Kilda teams in that regard. When you compare Richmond's game style against the other two dominant teams of the past decade - Hawthorn and Geelong - and I know who I'd prefer to watch as a neutral.

At some point other teams are going to try to replicate Richmond's game plan. And I desperately hope that they don't succeed.
Except lyon didnt win too many grannys by 15 goals!
 

Captain chaos

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Jul 13, 2016
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Richmond minus rance only really. Their list has been healthy for the past couple of months as well. Gws on the other hand have been banged up season long and it was a fair bloody effort by them to make the GF.


Stack would walk into most sides and cotchin and nankervis only nade it back at the last minute.
 
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