Opinion Our premiership window

[HTT]

As I have said, you need to win at least 3 of them in a season to win a Premiership.

What did North get out of betting Richmond last year, the opportunity to play in the second week for a spot in a Preliminary Final and all the actual benefits that come with the experience, added revenue and exposure as a result of it.

I look at the process and by the looks of it the process has not only stalled at Richmond it has come to a complete stop.

Bah. Revenue? Exposure? We aren't minnows. Our 2015 team would beat our 2013 team 9 times out of 10. 2013 we jumped up a bit, caught a few teams off guard. No team expects Richmond to be a pushover anymore, I don't reckon even Adelaide this week. It takes one finals win, and it'll just be another game. In just one game, we have to actually turn up and play.

 

[I Rock]

Bah. Revenue? Exposure? We aren't minnows. Our 2015 team would beat our 2013 team 9 times out of 10. 2013 we jumped up a bit, caught a few teams off guard. No team expects Richmond to be a pushover anymore, I don't reckon even Adelaide this week. It takes one finals win, and it'll just be another game. In just one game, we have to actually turn up and play.

Would that 10th time be during a final by any chance?

You seem to be missing the point (badly) and your theory that one season Richmond will just click and then snag a Premiership is stupid at best. Further to this I could take your whole argument that Finals losses mean nothing in the context of team improvement and apply it to H/A games. As improvement in them mean nothing if you can't win a final let alone at least three.

 

[HTT]

Would that 10th time be during a final by any chance?

You seem to be missing the point (badly) and your theory that one season Richmond will just click and then snag a Premiership is stupid at best. Further to this I could take your whole argument that Finals losses mean nothing in the context of team improvement and apply it to H/A games. As improvement in them mean nothing if you can't win a final let alone at least three.

Why couldn't we just click? How much different is a final anyway? Finals are the easy bit, you just need to time your run at them and find yourself at the top of your formline. Making it there is harder, you can't just ride your form.

 

[I Rock]

Why couldn't we just click? How much different is a final anyway? Finals are the easy bit, you just need to time your run at them and find yourself at the top of your formline. Making it there is harder, you can't just ride your form.

Why can't they just click; because they can't even get their shit together to win one let alone another two or three.

You get 22 attempts in the H/A season where a 60% strike rate more times than not gets you a run in the Finals. Even if you then find yourself in the top 4 you only get one second chance in the first week, otherwise it's win or see ya later. No chance to back it up next week after that stupid **** Grundy gets out the back and snags one with 4 seconds to go. You might want to check your numbers again.

Again you're wrong, you can ride form in the H'A season, you can't rely on that in Finals. Just ask St Kilda, Collingwood 2010, Geelong 2008 etc etc

 

[HTT]

Why can't they just click; because they can't even get their shit together to win one let alone another two or three.

You get 22 attempts in the H/A season where a 60% strike rate more times than not gets you a run in the Finals. Even if you then find yourself in the top 4 you only get one second chance in the first week, otherwise it's win or see ya later. No chance to back it up next week after that stupid **** Grundy gets out the back and snags one with 4 seconds to go. You might want to check your numbers again.

Again you're wrong, you can ride form in the H'A season, you can't rely on that in Finals. Just ask St Kilda, Collingwood 2010, Geelong 2008 etc etc

I think you've missed the idea of a side 'clicking'. For example, West Coast clicked last year, and they shot up the ladder, into premiership contention, after a few years of rebuilding without much reward.
Form doesn't last 22 weeks, ask anyone. Without going through their season, I'll bet in 08, Geelong had some poor games they managed to get up in. What happened in those years you mention is, a team rode their form, caught the favourite off guard, and got up.

 

[I Rock]

I think you've missed the idea of a side 'clicking'. For example, West Coast clicked last year, and they shot up the ladder, into premiership contention, after a few years of rebuilding without much reward.
Form doesn't last 22 weeks, ask anyone. Without going through their season, I'll bet in 08, Geelong had some poor games they managed to get up in. What happened in those years you mention is, a team rode their form, caught the favourite off guard, and got up.

But by your own admission West Coast last year achieved nothing. So why bring that up to reaffirm your point? Richmond have clicked as well, clicked so well they played one extra game than they normally would.

Then you go against your own argument to suggest that you don't need to be at the top of your game in the H/A season all the time, yet need to do so in the finals. Even though not two posts ago you where suggesting that the finals was the easy part and the H/A season was the real true hardship.

Not only is your argument a bad one, you can't seem to keep it a consistent bad one.

 

[1980GFVideo]

It could be wide open.

But how will we know unless we learn to win a final.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Ok mate, my understanding of young is very different to yours...! May be you are the only true supporter RFC has, good on you.!
if you think cotch's performance against carlton or pies was worth giving credit then I have nothing more to say. It was lambo who stood up for us while captain cotch was missing again in the last quarter.!
There is no hate for cotch, he's been great for us but it's time to take off the blinkers and judge his performance as a neutral. There is not a single opposition supporter who rates Cotchin why.? yet, everyone rates dusty & lids as our most damaging & important players.

may be he's carrying the weight of expectations as a Richmond captain, if that's the case he should give up and lift his game to the next level. We want the best player first, captain is secondary.....

By the coaches votes from Friday night's game the two coaches obviously rated his game ?

 

[exceptional design]

Why couldn't we just click? How much different is a final anyway? Finals are the easy bit

 

[prodigy1311]

By the coaches votes from Friday night's game the two coaches obviously rated his game ?

True that and they for sure know better then me. Trent played better compared to last week but for mine majority of his touches were ineffective and he was not there when the game was on the line..! Just my opinion, could be way off the mark but that's how me and may be a few others here feel.

 

[HTT]

But by your own admission West Coast last year achieved nothing. So why bring that up to reaffirm your point? Richmond have clicked as well, clicked so well they played one extra game than they normally would.

Then you go against your own argument to suggest that you don't need to be at the top of your game in the H/A season all the time, yet need to do so in the finals. Even though not two posts ago you where suggesting that the finals was the easy part and the H/A season was the real true hardship.

Not only is your argument a bad one, you can't seem to keep it a consistent bad one.

Mate you don't even have an argument other than 'you're wrong'. I've responded to everything you've said. We clicked a bit in 2013, but we can do it again. West Coast got bloody close to achieving something last year. Obviously at the start of the season they weren't aiming for a flag. But when you make top 4, it has to be the goal. Everyone else is just making up the numbers, earning the AFL money. That's why I said before, elimination finals weren't real finals.

I am saying you can't possibly be at the top of your game for all of the H&A. I should've worded it differently. It's easier to ride a bit of form and luck through the finals (if you're in the top 4) than through H&A, how often can you say the top 8 aren't the best 8? A hell of a lot less often than you can say the premiers weren't the best team. Before you dismiss it as 'wrong', 2008 hawthorn, 2009 Geelong, 2012 Sydney, 2014 hawthorn, all in recent memory.

Last year, we were a game outside the top 4. That's the best indication of where we're at. If we can break into the top 4 (not impossible), we can hopefully time it right and have a red hot crack.

At the end of the day, that's not what the threads about, and I think we've derailed it enough. My opinion on the topic raised is that our premiership window is opening this year (could snag one, but unlikely), and and then open 2017 onwards. What's yours?

 

[HTT]

Probably a bit vague in my wording. Read my post just above.

 

[Holy Foley!]

I personally think it'll be while. All of our old players have reached their peak (Lids, Maric, Sheds & Co), and all of our next batch of younger players (Cotch, Martin, Miles etc) are too young to be hitting their peak. So give it 4-5 years before that second group hit their peak around age 27-8 and hope that we have enough young talent to get us over the line. But that first group of players I mentioned won't be there for our next flag.

 

[mopsy]

Someone needs to contact the builder. Architect forgot the bloody windows.

Shoddy foundation as well.

 

[mopsy]

I feel as though our Premiership window is a big unknown right now, relying a lot on players to live up to potential... Right now a few players aren't living up to expectations, nor are they consistent enough for us to make a deep finals run. Biggest issue for mine is our ruck stocks and durability of our stars, everyone here is pinning all the hopes of this season on two of our oldest, most injury plagued (in recent times) players returning. Which is sort of the big issue, Lids and Maric are considered to be two of the biggest keys to our success, and by the time the rest of our list hits their straps, they'll both be spent.

Right now I believe the window opening is dependent on a few key things;

• Breaking this reliance on Lids, our record without him is abyssmal, and you can't be that reliant on a single aging player with fitness issues.
• Ruck stocks, Maric is getting more of the "old man" injuries, he can't shoulder a full games ruck load against an A grade ruck anymore, Elton appears to be a non-event, Griff can't cut it, Vickery is better in the forward line, Hampson shows signs at times at being good at tap work (arguably superior to Maric), seems to be getting better around the ground, but he can't kick for shit... End of the day, we aren't getting anywhere without a decent ruck.
• Younger talent, we hear about the raw talent of our youth, the "elite" midfielders, but they're inconsistent or arguably over-rated, most just need more time to develop, but while we wait, the others are dropping out of their prime years.

As it stands, our list is that standard fair 5-8 ranked kind of team, good enough to make finals, might snag an EF win eventually, but unlikely to go deep into the run. Really unless something is done odds are they spend a few years making finals, doing **** all, then having to rebuild without achieving much other than getting worse draft picks. Either we need to actually lure a few star players in via FA or trades, or have a down year, prop up on talent / picks to trade on for talent, and build for a serious run in 3-5 years when the current youth hits their prime and rely on a veteran Cotchin, Martin and co. rather than "prime years"

This. Only point i disagree on is the 5-8 ranking. I would say more like 7th to 12. saying this it wont be hard to work out what i voted. Lots of work needs to be done.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

True that and they for sure know better then me. Trent played better compared to last week but for mine majority of his touches were ineffective and he was not there when the game was on the line..! Just my opinion, could be way off the mark but that's how me and may be a few others here feel.

Gas tank was dry , support crew who came into the side in Grigg, Cellis and Hunt, were gone at the half way mark..

 

[mopsy]

View attachment 232434

Mr Dangerfield sir, that is hilarious nearly fell of me chair.

 

[mopsy]

Out of all the teams that played on the weekend, only 3 were younger than us. Our average age was the same as Melbournes.
Dont know how you think that isnt young.

Cotch had most clearances in the game and 2nd most contested.
There is hate for Cotch. Clearly. No one rates him because he played had a horrible final, so every spend the whole off seasons thinking how shit it was and now to the point where everything just thinks he is shit. And you have been sucked into it too.

Wow and thats after seven years of the current coaches rebuild. What the hell went wrong!!!!!!!!!!.

 

[mellowyellow]

With the current list ,shut and bolted tighter then a fishes arseh*le

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

i reckoned before the season we are teetering on the brink more than any other team I can think of.
We really could go either way and play finals again and win one, or plummet back down to 12-18, neither would surprise me in the least.
Very hard team to get a read on.

 

[Jimmybob]

At our absolute best, we can beat any team on any day. Somehow the team needs to emulate that performance on a weekly basis, instead of a few times a year. Until that happens, there's no way we're a chance at a grand final, let alone getting in one.

 

[mopsy]

With regards to the bulldogs, They benefited massively from the free hit of 3 father/son recruits. Libba is an absolute star, Hunter looks promising, and Wallis has stepped up to a very high level. Don't forget that these also came at the time we were attempting to rebuild from the bottom of the ladder but getting no access to the best players. Compound that with the fact that we had no senior players to trade out for high picks, and it's a perfect recipe for not having a great team.

To be honest, and I know this won't happen (and if it did, it would shake my support of the club to the core), but pulling a Blight would probably be our best chance of a flag. Trade out Lids, Jack, Cotch, Edwards over 2 or so years and own the first round of 2 drafts. Would be unpopular but would net the club at least 5-7 first round picks and a few young players as well.

My god I can't believe I just typed that.

If that was to happen i would hope they had the sense to get rid of FJ first.

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

Gas tank was dry , support crew who came into the side in Grigg, Cellis and Hunt, were gone at the half way mark..

Throw Grime's injury on top as well...
We very nearly pinched it...

 

[SpudsLoveChild]

Sometimes this is how our window feels to me

 

[Roachy8]

There is always this one...