How Confident Are You?

[_RT_]

Well our practice matches are finished and the Tigers went 1-3. In fairness we went into 2 games with line ups that were more experimental than serious and it was only the Pies game we actually played with any sort of structure aimed at how we will line up Round 1.

So I thought I would ask these questions:

How Confident Are You?(poll)

Who has impressed you this pre season?

Who has you worried?

 

[Darth_Tiger]

i am quietly confident going into the season. we should go ok, if the kids keep on developing as expected. we do need a few players to stand up that have only showed promise up until this stage (some of pattison, moore, schulz, thursfield, meyer, tambling, polak and howatt will need to improve and really stake a senior claim for us to be genuine finals material). that said i prefer to at least start a season with some optimism so i am backing them to come through with the goods.

i was wrapped to hear that patto had a great game yesterday. if he comes on this year it could make a huge difference. patto and simmo swapping between ruck and forward could give massive headaches to most opposition. if kel moore comes on and does a job (and stays injury free) it will also make a big difference.

i am worried about tivendale and krak. krak will probably be ok, but i hope he isnt too distracted with outside stuff. tiv well it sounds like he is still turning the ball over too much. gaspar is a worry, hopefully he can do his job at fb, would be a huge bonus if he can reach somewhere near his aa form.

i voted around the 8 because i think we should make it but not if we get more than our share of injuries and because there is alot depending on the improvement of a number of players.

 

[PLSC]

same old duds still getting unwarranted gametime and a lack of structure this early on in the season is to do with the piss poor list management rather than "luck"

"around the 8"

how many times have we heard that crap before lol

 

[Bentleigh]

9th-ish.

We will beat Carlton and North, feel good about ourselfs, get rapped by the good sides and come 9th.

 

[Darth_Tiger]

enter two who rather than be optimistic at the start of the season write off our chances before the bounce of the first ball in the hope that they will be proved wrong and pleasantly surprised if we do have a good year - and if we dont you can always say 'i told you so'. you win either way.

whatever works for you - as i always say i like a balanced view.

 

[Bentleigh]

enter two who rather than be optimistic at the start of the season write off our chances before the bounce of the first ball in the hope that they will be proved wrong and pleasantly surprised if we do have a good year - and if we dont you can always say 'i told you so'. you win either way

Cheers doc.

 

[PLSC]

enter two who rather than be optimistic at the start of the season write off our chances before the bounce of the first ball in the hope that they will be proved wrong and pleasantly surprised if we do have a good year - and if we dont you can always say 'i told you so'. you win either way.

whatever works for you - as i always say i like a balanced view.

yeh you can keep fluffing your pillows and looking at your richmond membership everytime before bed and say to yourself "THIS YEAR ITS TIME!!!"

myself on the other hand has seen early season hope fall dead on its arse too many times

11th

 

[Weaver]

A. The Optimists View - We are on track, improving every year and destined to be competitive because of a group of teenagers. Finals for sure.

B. The Pessimets View - We have rubbish players, no signs of improvement and poor list management and are destined for the bottom-4.

C. Reailst View? - Both are true. We are destined for a poor this year because we have too many kids, too few quality senior players and too little depth. However we are on the right track. The recruting is good and has a clear plan behind it. It is just that it is too early to see dividends.

I can't see us making the finals this year. But I think we are finally on the right track and actually doing the hard-yards to build a winning team.

 

[PLSC]

A. The Optimists View - We are on track, improving every year and destined to be competitive because of a group of teenagers. Finals for sure.

B. The Pessimets View - We have rubbish players, no signs of improvement and poor list management and are destined for the bottom-4.

C. Reailst View? - Both are true. We are destined for a poor this year because we have too many kids, too few quality senior players and too little depth. However we are on the right track. The recruting is good and has a clear plan behind it. It is just that it is too early to see dividends.

I can't see us making the finals this year. But I think we are finally on the right track and actually doing the hard-yards to build a winning team.

yeh because getting kinglsey clearly has a clear plan behind it we just havent seen it yet

come on mate if we dont make the 8 this year it is crap we might aswell play mcguane in defence and riewoldt up forward but the coaching stuff dont have the balls and they are all out for the most wins we can get which still wont be enough for the 8

hard-yards lol whatever that means

 

[Weaver]

hard-yards lol whatever that means

Hard-yards is ignoring those loud, self-important, whingeing, impatient supporters who have no ability to look beyond Monday's sport section and demand immediate success.

Our club has been blighted for 20 years by 'supporters' who want instant gratification. By supporters who grow frantic 3-years into any rebuilding effort. Who can't stomach taking the pain and demand instant fixes via the draft, trades or more commonly sacking players, coaches and boards.

Every other year we have been oblidged to start again.

We finally have a board, footy director and coach who are prepared to give the one finger salute to the feral supporters.

We have a footy club that set out a clear plan in the 2003 National Draft. We would be athletic, quick and exciting and in a position to capitalise on the game becoming more and more a running game.

We didn't recruit guys with a view to them playing immediately.

We didn't recruit guys who didn't suit our plans.

We didn't listen to the feral supporters who want every senior player punished and want to make scapegoats of the guys who are actually getting senior games and playing well.

And for the first time in living memory we haven't thrown out the plan and rebuilding we have already done ... just to getthe desparate chicken littles of this world off their back.

We have guys actually running the club for a change, instead of a group of cowards running scared of being sacked or abused by a few weekend warriors.

We are doing the hard-yards. We are building a team from sratch and accepting that we will loose games along the way.

We are building a team with a view to playing consistant finals and winning a premiership. It takes time. It takes a decade. At least we are finally operating like we know it can't be done in 3 seasons.

Those after quick fixes have been the enemy of our club for 20 years. Finally they are being shouted down.

 

[tigerT]

Hard-yards is ignoring those loud, self-important, whingeing, impatient supporters who have no ability to look beyond Monday's sport section and demand immediate success.

Our club has been blighted for 20 years by 'supporters' who want instant gratification. By supporters who grow frantic 3-years into any rebuilding effort. Who can't stomach taking the pain and demand instant fixes via the draft, trades or more commonly sacking players, coaches and boards.

Every other year we have been oblidged to start again.

We finally have a board, footy director and coach who are prepared to give the one finger salute to the feral supporters.

We have a footy club that set out a clear plan in the 2003 National Draft. We would be athletic, quick and exciting and in a position to capitalise on the game becoming more and more a running game.

We didn't recruit guys with a view to them playing immediately.

We didn't recruit guys who didn't suit our plans.

We didn't listen to the feral supporters who want every senior player punished and want to make scapegoats of the guys who are actually getting senior games and playing well.

And for the first time in living memory we haven't thrown out the plan and rebuilding we have already done ... just to getthe desparate chicken littles of this world off their back.

We have guys actually running the club for a change, instead of a group of cowards running scared of being sacked or abused by a few weekend warriors.

We are doing the hard-yards. We are building a team from sratch and accepting that we will loose games along the way.

We are building a team with a view to playing consistant finals and winning a premiership. It takes time. It takes a decade. At least we are finally operating like we know it can't be done in 3 seasons.

Those after quick fixes have been the enemy of our club for 20 years. Finally they are being shouted down.

Havent always agreed with your views, but that was gold, right on the money mate

 

[Darth_Tiger]

Cheers doc.

thanks bents. got a good laugh out of that one

 

[Darth_Tiger]

yeh you can keep fluffing your pillows and looking at your richmond membership everytime before bed and say to yourself "THIS YEAR ITS TIME!!!"

myself on the other hand has seen early season hope fall dead on its arse too many times

11th

thats even funnier. fluff my pillows rofl at that. i am not saying that at all, i just prefer to start the year with a bit of optimism otherwise i wouldnt bother to even watch the footy to be honest. if i really thought my team were a bunch of hacks and had no hope of going anywhere i would find another hobby.

 

[PLSC]

Hard-yards is ignoring those loud, self-important, whingeing, impatient supporters who have no ability to look beyond Monday's sport section and demand immediate success.

Our club has been blighted for 20 years by 'supporters' who want instant gratification. By supporters who grow frantic 3-years into any rebuilding effort. Who can't stomach taking the pain and demand instant fixes via the draft, trades or more commonly sacking players, coaches and boards.

Every other year we have been oblidged to start again.

We finally have a board, footy director and coach who are prepared to give the one finger salute to the feral supporters.

We have a footy club that set out a clear plan in the 2003 National Draft. We would be athletic, quick and exciting and in a position to capitalise on the game becoming more and more a running game.

We didn't recruit guys with a view to them playing immediately.

We didn't recruit guys who didn't suit our plans.

We didn't listen to the feral supporters who want every senior player punished and want to make scapegoats of the guys who are actually getting senior games and playing well.

And for the first time in living memory we haven't thrown out the plan and rebuilding we have already done ... just to getthe desparate chicken littles of this world off their back.

We have guys actually running the club for a change, instead of a group of cowards running scared of being sacked or abused by a few weekend warriors.

We are doing the hard-yards. We are building a team from sratch and accepting that we will loose games along the way.

We are building a team with a view to playing consistant finals and winning a premiership. It takes time. It takes a decade. At least we are finally operating like we know it can't be done in 3 seasons.

Those after quick fixes have been the enemy of our club for 20 years. Finally they are being shouted down.

you can fluff that post as much as you want but the jist of it is blaming richmond supporters for being impatient and also blaming the supporters for putting too much "pressure" on our coaches which meant they couldnt do their job properly

congratulations weaver for graduating from the terry wallace school of talking out of your ass

ooops your a mod

apologies

 

[Ando_4]

How Confident Are You?(poll) 10

Who has impressed you this pre season? Foley, Schulz, Brown, Polak, Pattison

Who has you worried? Richardson, Simmonds (injuries) Gaspar, Tivendale, Hughes (form)

 

[Tigerrific]

On paper we should improve from last year. We have Brown back and the recruitment of Polak and Kingsley will hopefully strengthen our forward and defence. If this is complemented by a steady improvement from youngsters like Foley, Tambling, Pattison, Lids, Raines etc there is no reason why we can't challenge for a place in the final eight. (We probably would have made it last year if Brown wasn't injured)

In reality our success or failure this year will be determined by our injury list. We can't afford to lose key players like Simmonds, Richo, Brown or J Bowden. If one (or more) of these guys aren't playing there is no-one on the list who can adequately cover for them and we will be unlikely to be competitive against the good teams.

I hope they can stay on the park because it would be more beneficial long term to give the youngsters some finals experience that to finish lower down and get a high draft pick.

I also agree with Darth that Tivs, Krak and Gaspar are a worry and have concerns that guys like Moore and Jackson may not be up to league standard, so I really don't know what to expect this this year. Like every year I will be hoping that we will at least be competitive in every game we play. No more 100 point thrashings would be a nice place to start.

 

[Crumden]

People on here jump all over our faults but seem to turn a blind eye to the faults of other teams. Going through the list, there are a few we could quite easily displace:

• West Coast and Sydney - unlikely that either of the grand finalist from the last two years would miss. A couple of long term injuries to key playmakers could make Sydney slip, but you'd expect both these teams to be up there again.
• Melbourne - seem to finally be putting a balanced team together after being fairly regular finalists that relied on too few. More likely than not to make it.
• Adelaide - rely a lot on players like Goodwin, Maclead, Riccuioto. Probably still have enough left in these top end blokes to make it, but their list slips away abit.
• St Kilda and Freo - Both have pretty good players in the top half of their side, but a fair bit of rubbish filling the lower spots. St Kilda seem to get hit a bit harder than most teams by injury, and a new coach is a bit of an unkown (though should be a plus for them). Both these teams could be either top 4 or miss altogether.
• Bulldogs - their gameplan gets found wanting in big games. Unless Eade can add another string to the bow, other teams could start catching up to them as well. I'm much happier with the way Wallace is teaching our blokes 3 different game plans to switch between depending on the status of a game. It takes much longer to master, but will be more finals proof when we eventually get it right.
• Collingwood - can't see where any improvement in them will come from. More likely to go down than up.
• Geelong - top 8 list but a question over whether they can overcome the absence of an AFL coach.
• Hawthorn - Spida going will hurt them. Doesn't leave them with many ruck options in the short term. And yeah, they've got some promising kids, but Mitchell and Crawford are still the keys.
• Port Power - still got a few of their better players going around and some promising kids, so can never be taken lightly. But more likely to finish out of the 8 again IMO.
• Essendon, Carlton, Kangaroos, Brisbane - forget it. Will cause some occasional nuisance value to other teams with a few upsets, but can't see any of them being finals contenders.

So plenty of opportunity to make the eight. Just need to make sure we win all our games against the bottom 4 or 5 then win more than we lose against the other half a dozen teams that will be battling out for spots.

 

[Crumden]

BTW. We will make the 8.

 

[jezza]

People on here jump all over our faults but seem to turn a blind eye to the faults of other teams. Going through the list, there are a few we could quite easily displace:

Quite a few that could displace us too.....

 

[Crumden]

Quite a few that could displace us too.....

Getting displaced from 9th isn't such a big deal though jezza. Hopefully Collingwood will be the ones to displace us.

 

[Weaver]

you can fluff that post as much as you want but the jist of it is blaming richmond supporters for being impatient and also blaming the supporters for putting too much "pressure" on our coaches which meant they couldnt do their job properly

I am not blaming the supporters. I am blaming the adminsistrators and coaches for listening to them.

Danny Frawley was a guy whose approach changed every other weekend. One interview he was all about playing kids. The next he was on about giving senior players one last chance. One draft we would top up with veterans and the next we would try to be a big-strong team like Brisbane by getting guys like Morrison and Weller.

He had no sense of what his football philosophy was. He was purely week to week. Northey, Walls, Geischen were others who only looked at the win-loss column because they knew the knives were out for them. They only though short-term. They couldn't see past the next board meeting.

Bartlett had no resources to work with but at least he tried to think long term and bring in players like Knights, Lambert, Free, Maxfield and co. He didn't get results himself but he was the only coach we have had who actually went to the effort of trying to build a team that could win - not just focus on the Monday paper.

Wallace and Miller are looking 4-5 years down the track and not letting themselves get distracted. That is what we have needed. No more quick fixes - they don't work.

Most of our draft picks will flop, because most of the draft picks in the league are flops. But we will keep adding 2-3 players a year and build a team. A team that is fast, athletic and can win finals. Not just a team of veteran plodders who can sneak into the top-8 and go out in straight sets.

 

[IDGAF]

I can't see us making the finals this year. But I think we are finally on the right track and actually doing the hard-yards to build a winning team.

I just fell of my chair

 

[IDGAF]

I am not blaming the supporters. I am blaming the adminsistrators and coaches for listening to them.

Danny Frawley was a guy whose approach changed every other weekend. One interview he was all about playing kids. The next he was on about giving senior players one last chance. One draft we would top up with veterans and the next we would try to be a big-strong team like Brisbane by getting guys like Morrison and Weller.

He had no sense of what his football philosophy was. He was purely week to week. Northey, Walls, Geischen were others who only looked at the win-loss column because they knew the knives were out for them. They only though short-term. They couldn't see past the next board meeting.

Bartlett had no resources to work with but at least he tried to think long term and bring in players like Knights, Lambert, Free, Maxfield and co. He didn't get results himself but he was the only coach we have had who actually went to the effort of trying to build a team that could win - not just focus on the Monday paper.

Wallace and Miller are looking 4-5 years down the track and not letting themselves get distracted. That is what we have needed. No more quick fixes - they don't work.

Most of our draft picks will flop, because most of the draft picks in the league are flops. But we will keep adding 2-3 players a year and build a team. A team that is fast, athletic and can win finals. Not just a team of veteran plodders who can sneak into the top-8 and go out in straight sets.

Sage words Weaver.

As regards the "buildup" this year ... it is plainly obvious after the horrendous debacle of round one last year , TW has thought and planned very meticulously about ensuring such a rout does not repeat itself this year . I think that we have very deliberately low key ... plenty of experimentation .... with a slow build up resulting in improved performances in the last couple of praccy matches . With all the effort culminating in a 100% red hot go against the blues ...

Round one last year was a monumental disaster on so many levels , and probably the biggest blight on Terry Wallaces` coaching career ... it would be interesting to quantify how many memberships it cost us , the confidence of the players , the continued lack of respect that we are so desperately trying to win back ....

All the signs are pointing in the right direction ... but we have said that before . As usual , we will sit back and see what they dish up

 

[peejay]

same old duds still getting unwarranted gametime and a lack of structure this early on in the season is to do with the piss poor list management rather than "luck"

"around the 8"

how many times have we heard that crap before lol

How many times do we hear this?

 

[IDGAF]

How many times do we hear this?

Scary thing is some people actually find it interesting