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Two teams face moment of truth
By Patrick Smith
July 14, 2003
AFTER eight rounds of football, Richmond were the best Victorian team and St Kilda were considered the most exciting; now they are fighting not just to make the finals but to squeeze some credibility and dignity from the dregs of the season.
Collectively they have not won one match out of their past 11 games. Next week the Tigers play Collingwood and St Kilda face the Kangaroos. It is not necessarily going to get any better.
Their rise and fall has been as interesting and profound as one another.
After eight rounds Richmond had won six matches. Coach Danny Frawley had them playing vigorous, direct football.
But they have been struck by injury more so than any other team. Brad Ottens and Ben Holland are back but underdone. Darren Gaspar is gone for the season.
Ray Hall has missed six games, Duncan Kellaway has played just one and Justin Blumfield has just returned after missing 11 weeks following hip surgery. Mark Dragicevic has played just two matches.
Now captain Wayne Campbell is gone for the season after already missing six matches with a calf tear. Kane Johnson has done his hamstring. Their 250-game veteran Leon Cameron expects to have a scan on a knee he hurt in the second quarter against Geelong.
Danny Frawley has never had his best collection of players on the field, yet look high over Punt Road and they are not seagulls you see. They are the buzzards that this season have migrated from Hawthorn to Melbourne to Geelong and now to Tigerland.
Frawley's men looked sluggish when the contest began against Geelong. Cameron said he felt the mood was vibrant and excited as the team ran on to the ground. On reflection he wonders whether the team was overawed. That the emotion bubbling for Cameron's 250th game worked against the side.
Whatever, he agrees the team was uninventive and the ball movement turgid. Cameron himself was influential in the first half, kicking four goals, but his knee injury, sustained in the second quarter, became an anchor.
Cameron spoke to the players at three-quarter time. A goal on the siren by Matthew Richardson had reduced the deficit to 20 points. Cameron urged his players on. He sensed the Geelong run was drying up. The Tigers rallied but fell four points short.
Cameron spoke a second time to the players, this time after the game. He spoke with clarity and good sense. He told the players that Richmond had a wonderful group of coaches, headed by Frawley. He said the rest of the football department staff, doctors, physios and trainers were the equal of any.
The reason the Tigers sat on six wins and nine losses was a matter the players had to address. This mess was of their making. It was up to them to ensure the season did not fall away into despair and its first cousin, recrimination.
With so many men injured, the input from peripheral players had to be constant and worthwhile. It was early, it isn't now. Where players were contributing with a goal here and there; when they came off the bench and gave five minutes of hard running, there is precious little now.
We have passengers, Cameron said. A team can perhaps carry two and still win but not six to eight. An honest assessment from the veteran. He is undecided whether he will play on next year. "Much will depend on the next seven weeks," he said.
Richmond could help themselves by recruiting some fast legs and clear thinkers. They are a slow side. They have some quick players – David Rodan and Adam Fiora – but they do not use it to their advantage.
And they need some football grey matter. Players who can make the right decision, spot the right option, run to the right places. Missed targets running into the forward line is as much the result of choosing the wrong target as it is lack of skill.
St Kilda's season is fast turning into one of big statements and small deeds. They have lost the past four since their win against Brisbane. Coach Grant Thomas kept Nathan Burke on at the end of last season and sacked Matthew Capuano mid-way through this season. He should have asked Burke to retire and kept Capuano.
Against Sydney the Saints managed 22 hit-outs to the Swans' 49. Jason Ball, a ruck enthusiast but hardly the best technician, got 24 tap-outs alone. "It is a pity they don't have a ruckman," Ball said after the game. Well, they did. Capuano is a premiership ruckman. And they went and sacked him, saying the club has zero toleration of mediocrity. Such nonsense.
Thomas also confirmed that the club would continue to play emerging young footballers. How then does Burke, a great club champion creeping up on Stewart Loewe's club games record, fit into that philosophy? He doesn't, of course.
Thomas said one of his major aims this season was to make sure the Saints were competitive and not prone to blowouts. They have lost their last four games by an average of 50 points.
Thomas has seven games left this year to make sure that 2003 was not the season of the idle boast.
The Australian
By Patrick Smith
July 14, 2003
AFTER eight rounds of football, Richmond were the best Victorian team and St Kilda were considered the most exciting; now they are fighting not just to make the finals but to squeeze some credibility and dignity from the dregs of the season.
Collectively they have not won one match out of their past 11 games. Next week the Tigers play Collingwood and St Kilda face the Kangaroos. It is not necessarily going to get any better.
Their rise and fall has been as interesting and profound as one another.
After eight rounds Richmond had won six matches. Coach Danny Frawley had them playing vigorous, direct football.
But they have been struck by injury more so than any other team. Brad Ottens and Ben Holland are back but underdone. Darren Gaspar is gone for the season.
Ray Hall has missed six games, Duncan Kellaway has played just one and Justin Blumfield has just returned after missing 11 weeks following hip surgery. Mark Dragicevic has played just two matches.
Now captain Wayne Campbell is gone for the season after already missing six matches with a calf tear. Kane Johnson has done his hamstring. Their 250-game veteran Leon Cameron expects to have a scan on a knee he hurt in the second quarter against Geelong.
Danny Frawley has never had his best collection of players on the field, yet look high over Punt Road and they are not seagulls you see. They are the buzzards that this season have migrated from Hawthorn to Melbourne to Geelong and now to Tigerland.
Frawley's men looked sluggish when the contest began against Geelong. Cameron said he felt the mood was vibrant and excited as the team ran on to the ground. On reflection he wonders whether the team was overawed. That the emotion bubbling for Cameron's 250th game worked against the side.
Whatever, he agrees the team was uninventive and the ball movement turgid. Cameron himself was influential in the first half, kicking four goals, but his knee injury, sustained in the second quarter, became an anchor.
Cameron spoke to the players at three-quarter time. A goal on the siren by Matthew Richardson had reduced the deficit to 20 points. Cameron urged his players on. He sensed the Geelong run was drying up. The Tigers rallied but fell four points short.
Cameron spoke a second time to the players, this time after the game. He spoke with clarity and good sense. He told the players that Richmond had a wonderful group of coaches, headed by Frawley. He said the rest of the football department staff, doctors, physios and trainers were the equal of any.
The reason the Tigers sat on six wins and nine losses was a matter the players had to address. This mess was of their making. It was up to them to ensure the season did not fall away into despair and its first cousin, recrimination.
With so many men injured, the input from peripheral players had to be constant and worthwhile. It was early, it isn't now. Where players were contributing with a goal here and there; when they came off the bench and gave five minutes of hard running, there is precious little now.
We have passengers, Cameron said. A team can perhaps carry two and still win but not six to eight. An honest assessment from the veteran. He is undecided whether he will play on next year. "Much will depend on the next seven weeks," he said.
Richmond could help themselves by recruiting some fast legs and clear thinkers. They are a slow side. They have some quick players – David Rodan and Adam Fiora – but they do not use it to their advantage.
And they need some football grey matter. Players who can make the right decision, spot the right option, run to the right places. Missed targets running into the forward line is as much the result of choosing the wrong target as it is lack of skill.
St Kilda's season is fast turning into one of big statements and small deeds. They have lost the past four since their win against Brisbane. Coach Grant Thomas kept Nathan Burke on at the end of last season and sacked Matthew Capuano mid-way through this season. He should have asked Burke to retire and kept Capuano.
Against Sydney the Saints managed 22 hit-outs to the Swans' 49. Jason Ball, a ruck enthusiast but hardly the best technician, got 24 tap-outs alone. "It is a pity they don't have a ruckman," Ball said after the game. Well, they did. Capuano is a premiership ruckman. And they went and sacked him, saying the club has zero toleration of mediocrity. Such nonsense.
Thomas also confirmed that the club would continue to play emerging young footballers. How then does Burke, a great club champion creeping up on Stewart Loewe's club games record, fit into that philosophy? He doesn't, of course.
Thomas said one of his major aims this season was to make sure the Saints were competitive and not prone to blowouts. They have lost their last four games by an average of 50 points.
Thomas has seven games left this year to make sure that 2003 was not the season of the idle boast.
The Australian
