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Ok, so it's now evident again in 2017, that Hardwick can prepare a team to run out onto the field most of the time and hit the ground running, jump a team, ski all the way downhill, look like a million bucks AND THEN dissolve away to nothing in the second half.
I presume to most football watchers and devotees of the modern game, we now understand that the 1st half of football MEANS NOTHING. It doesn't matter if you are 5-6-7 goals up at Half Time OR 5-6-7 goals down, when you come out for the beginning of the 3rd Quarter after Half Time, mentally and physically, the game may as well be starting from nil all again. Everything up to Half Time is now irrelevant. The actual game that determines the outcome of the match starts with the beginning of the 3rd Quarter. The scoreboard might suggest differently, but the slate has now been wiped cleaned for both teams. Your big lead from the first half can be dismantled and dissolved, OR your chance to peg back a team can become a reality in the first 10 minutes.
And this is where Hardwick's achilles heel is. Hardwick prepares the players to go a million miles an hour with our team only having enough steam, will to win, clarity of thought, smart decision making, endeavour, planning, strategy and game style to make an impact in the first half. After that, we resemble the just turned 18 year old boy-to-man, who gets so excited when he enters his first massage parlour, that he leaves his happy ending in his pants in the lounge/bar waiting area. This RFC Senior Team of 2017 can't keep a lead after Half Time, because the unevenness of Hardwick's message and planning is all centred around the opening & second stanzas of a game. Hardwick obviously has no Plan B, because once he has exhausted Plan A (the all out attack of the first half) we have nothing left. No plan, no passion, no will to work, no thinking, no organisation.
I wish Hardwick would understand that to well trained, drilled, and primed Senior AFL Coaches....THE FIRST HALF OF GAMES DOESN'T MATTER. But lately, Hardwick lets the team drain itself to its last shot, right up until the Half Time siren. After half time Richmond become hesitant, slow, paranoid and claustrophobic, devoid of run, energy and the speed of thought to make smart, correct decisions under the more pressing stress of the second half.
If we start like a bull at a gate early against Essendon at the 'G' for the Dream Time game, eventually, IN THE SECOND HALF, Essendon will run us off our legs. If we are in front, Essendon will catch us. If we are behind, Essendon will burn us off in the second half.
For just once in his Coaching career, I hope Damian Hardwick is prepared for the second half of football. I don't care about the first half of football. I just want our players to not get over-run AGAIN. All it takes to stop this current Richmond disease is for Hardwick to understand the possibilities and plan for it. Hardwick needs a Plan B second half strategy. I'm tired of the RFC Players going missing in the 2nd Half of games and I'm also tired of Hardwick going missing in the 2nd Half of games ONLY TO appear in the after game Press Conference with all the answers and solution to our latest demise...albeit, too late! I'm tired of our wasted effort in the first half of games, and no effort in the second half of games. Hardwick's coaching career is now back on thin ice unless he controls these 2nd half game nose dives. It can't be tolerated at Richmond. 'Half-Time' Hardwick must get all players to see out entire games now. Or don't play players who disappear, choke or make poor skill decisions in the vital 3rd & 4th Quarters of games. This can't be a big ask of a Coach who's been leading a Senior Team since 2009.
See you at the game. (I'll be the one snoozing through the first half, because the real shite happens in the 3rd & 4th)
Cheers
(P.S: Hurry up and fix the Vaucluse Hotel you slack buggers)
I presume to most football watchers and devotees of the modern game, we now understand that the 1st half of football MEANS NOTHING. It doesn't matter if you are 5-6-7 goals up at Half Time OR 5-6-7 goals down, when you come out for the beginning of the 3rd Quarter after Half Time, mentally and physically, the game may as well be starting from nil all again. Everything up to Half Time is now irrelevant. The actual game that determines the outcome of the match starts with the beginning of the 3rd Quarter. The scoreboard might suggest differently, but the slate has now been wiped cleaned for both teams. Your big lead from the first half can be dismantled and dissolved, OR your chance to peg back a team can become a reality in the first 10 minutes.
And this is where Hardwick's achilles heel is. Hardwick prepares the players to go a million miles an hour with our team only having enough steam, will to win, clarity of thought, smart decision making, endeavour, planning, strategy and game style to make an impact in the first half. After that, we resemble the just turned 18 year old boy-to-man, who gets so excited when he enters his first massage parlour, that he leaves his happy ending in his pants in the lounge/bar waiting area. This RFC Senior Team of 2017 can't keep a lead after Half Time, because the unevenness of Hardwick's message and planning is all centred around the opening & second stanzas of a game. Hardwick obviously has no Plan B, because once he has exhausted Plan A (the all out attack of the first half) we have nothing left. No plan, no passion, no will to work, no thinking, no organisation.
I wish Hardwick would understand that to well trained, drilled, and primed Senior AFL Coaches....THE FIRST HALF OF GAMES DOESN'T MATTER. But lately, Hardwick lets the team drain itself to its last shot, right up until the Half Time siren. After half time Richmond become hesitant, slow, paranoid and claustrophobic, devoid of run, energy and the speed of thought to make smart, correct decisions under the more pressing stress of the second half.
If we start like a bull at a gate early against Essendon at the 'G' for the Dream Time game, eventually, IN THE SECOND HALF, Essendon will run us off our legs. If we are in front, Essendon will catch us. If we are behind, Essendon will burn us off in the second half.
For just once in his Coaching career, I hope Damian Hardwick is prepared for the second half of football. I don't care about the first half of football. I just want our players to not get over-run AGAIN. All it takes to stop this current Richmond disease is for Hardwick to understand the possibilities and plan for it. Hardwick needs a Plan B second half strategy. I'm tired of the RFC Players going missing in the 2nd Half of games and I'm also tired of Hardwick going missing in the 2nd Half of games ONLY TO appear in the after game Press Conference with all the answers and solution to our latest demise...albeit, too late! I'm tired of our wasted effort in the first half of games, and no effort in the second half of games. Hardwick's coaching career is now back on thin ice unless he controls these 2nd half game nose dives. It can't be tolerated at Richmond. 'Half-Time' Hardwick must get all players to see out entire games now. Or don't play players who disappear, choke or make poor skill decisions in the vital 3rd & 4th Quarters of games. This can't be a big ask of a Coach who's been leading a Senior Team since 2009.
See you at the game. (I'll be the one snoozing through the first half, because the real shite happens in the 3rd & 4th)
Cheers
(P.S: Hurry up and fix the Vaucluse Hotel you slack buggers)
