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http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,9297536%255E20123,00.html
Haven't we been here before, Richmond?
17 April 2004 Herald Sun
TAKE a trip to Richmond's official website and you will find an intriguing article from coach Danny Frawley.
OK, we will save you the trouble.
"There's been a lot of talk about the Richmond game plan since last Saturday night's shocker against St Kilda at Telstra Dome.
"I would like to take this opportunity to assure all Tiger fans that what they saw was not the game plan.
"We were far too stagnant and moved the ball far too slowly. To go inside our forward 50 area only 42 times in that arena, and have as many possessions as St Kilda, yet get beaten by 80 points strongly suggests that we were over-using the ball.
"Rest assured, we've gone right through what our style of play should be in the past few days, and how we can get back to what makes us a good team.
"Basically, our game plan revolves around moving the ball quickly and directly to our taller players inside the forward 50. By doing that, we're making the most of our assets, which are the number of big strong forwards we have and the ability of smaller players . . . to crumb to them."
Those with an eye for detail will have detected a few inconsistencies.
It was published on August 14, 2003.
Yet, the message from two games against St Kilda eight months apart was eerily similar.
Richmond's style of play against the Saints on Monday simply was more of the same for long-suffering supporters.
More specifically, it was a case of gross overuse of the ball, an indefensible number of unforced errors, a defensive mindset from the second quarter, and incompetence in front of goal.
The Tigers have kicked 36 goals in three games; with the miserable scores of 12.4 and 10.9 in the past two games.
Either they're better than that, or the player group is as limited as any in the competition.
We shall learn more tonight, when the Tigers face up to Geelong, which is in a similar plight.
Like most trends in football, Richmond's problem starts in the centre-square.
Brad Ottens was credited with 36 hit-outs on Monday, five more than St Kilda's aggregate, yet the Saints had 30 clearances to 23.
Didn't anyone at Richmond watch last year's Grand Final? Clark Keating didn't try to finesse the ball from the ruck contests, he thumped it forward for anyone of a half dozen smaller Brisbane players steaming towards goal.
Ottens continually dropped the ball at his feet or into the player mass, allowing St Kilda's superior midfielders to swoop and get the ball.
There has to be a message in the comparison of statistics for St Kilda and Richmond on Monday.
The Saints managed 55 inside 50s from 281 possessions; the Tigers managed 32 inside 50s from 256 possessions.
You won't need Terry Wallace or Garry Lyon to analyse those figures for you.
While it's a long time ago, it's still worth reflecting on Richmond's most recent premiership: 1980.
As premiership teams go, it was solid rather than brilliant, but what it did as a matter of course was play fierce, direct footy, banging the ball forward in the general direction of Michael Roach and David Cloke.
Roach and Cloke booted eight goals between them in the Grand Final, while Kevin Bartlett mopped up anything that hit the ground, kicking seven of his own.
While Brisbane has a magnificent team, it has a magnificently simple game plan, too.
As have most premiership teams throughout history.
One of the recurring criticisms of Frawley is his lack of faith in his game plan on match days.
It points to a mindset referred to by former football director Tony Jewell on the eve of the season, when he said most people at Punt Road lived in fear of supporter anger.
Decisions, therefore, are based on immediacy, not on long-term welfare. That's been evident both in recruiting and coaching on match days.
Of the 12 additions to the player list this year, five came from other AFL clubs, and that was a change for the better.
The previous year, four of the six newcomers were from other clubs: Kane Johnson, Justin Blumfield, Tim Fleming and Bill Nicholls.
Back to the present, the Tigers have two wins from their past 17 starts. They have nothing to lose by picking players in their best positions, telling them they will be given time to settle, and encouraging them to take risks.
The group badly needs confidence, which can only come from a win or a steady improvement in performance. Make that "wins". If it were as simple as one win, what went wrong after the 40-point win over Collingwood in the opening round?
The skill errors from Joel Bowden, Greg Tivendale, Aaron Fiora and others seem to be born of a fear of messing up rather than any lack of talent.
The on-going worry is the inability of team's talented players to cope with pressure, real and perceived.
It was a problem exposed by Melbourne in Round 2, and reinforced by St Kilda.
Tigers break hearts again
A LIFELONG Richmond supporter of 40, flush with the pride associated with the arrival of a first born, turned serious on my arrival at the head-wetting session.
He was most unsettled by my pre-season optimism about the Tigers, published in the Herald Sun in March, adamant it would turn into yet another false dawn.
His point was that we of the outside world merely monitor Richmond. We neither bleed for, nor understand, that rare beast, the tiger of the football jungle.
I acknowledged his point. He had grown up in a Richmond family, hearing of the glory of Richmond's great era from 1967-80 (five premierships from six Grand Finals).
He has had to content himself with faded teenage memories of the '80 triumph.
Since the club's most recent Grand Final year of 1982, Richmond has played finals in just two years – 1995 and 2001 – winning two and losing four.
In that period, the Tigers have presented themselves on 469 occasions, winning just 186 games, a success rate of a paltry 39 per cent.
That's why my friend is so gloomy about his footy team, even if his heart will never stray.
It is a bleak picture on and off the field.
The team continues to struggle, the balance sheet continues to bleed.
Only the inclusion of donations to the Jack Dyer Foundation kept the 2003 deficit to less than $1 million, and no one can understand how JDF money can be listed as football club income.
There has been much talk of redirection orders from the AFL and growing interest in the league's competitive balance fund, both tell-tale signs of heavy financial bleeding.
Clinton Casey and Greg Miller are running the football club; Casey because he is president and has been a heavy financial guarantor, Miller because he was brought on board to right the ship.
They have formed a strong alliance, and both are determined to achieve change in an orderly fashion. In the football department, anyway.
Casey's message on the board is plain and simple: We do it my way and, if you want to be on the board, you will be available as required, compliant and faithful.
The pair faces a mammoth task, one that will take longer than either hoped or believed.
They are prepared to stick around as long as it takes. The question is, will the most rabid supporter group in the competition give them the time they want?
Sacking Spud is not the answer
ACCORDING to Clinton Casey and Greg Miller, there is as much chance of Danny Frawley being dumped as coach during the season as there is of him playing full-back.
Casey and Miller, now in total control of Richmond FC, are adamant the club needs stability and vision more than it needs instant gratification.
Richmond, remember, had nine coaches from 1982, its most recent Grand Final year, to 1999, when Frawley replaced Jeff Gieschen.
Never mind the quality and commitment of the players, the strength or otherwise of the administration, it's always been the coach's fault. Until now.
Miller, who oversaw a remarkable period of stability and success at North Melbourne, wants to dismantle that culture.
He sees Frawley as a man of good values, a man of spirit who is committed to the job and popular with players.
What happens post-2004, of course, is another matter, given Frawley is in the last year of his contract.
He is in his fifth season, with a win rate of a modest 44 per cent from 94 games.
So, should he complete the season regardless of the team's performance? Even if, as Casey said pre-season, the Tigers are 1-10 mid-year?
Pros
HE coaches the team, he doesn't play. It's not him he continually misses targets with hand or foot, who goes sideways rather than forward almost by nature.
It's not him who freezes under the pressure; he doesn't miss goals with set shots from inside 30m.
Frawley is a healthy advertisement for the football club. He is a warm soul, animated, passionate and loyal. He cares; he celebrates, he bleeds.
He was good enough in the role to win 27 of his first 47 games, taking the club from 12th when he started, to ninth and then third.
Given Terry Wallace has declared unequivocally he won't take a job mid-season, who takes his place, anyway? Frawley's assistants can't be blameless, surely, in this era of group management.
Cons
THOSE 27 wins in in his first 47 games have been followed by 15 wins from the next 47.
The graph is going in the wrong direction.
Richmond's game plan is a shambles. If it's not the coach's game plan, why aren't the offenders taken from the ground at the time or dropped for the next game?
Richmond has kicked a total of 242 points from three games this year. Why is Danny so defensive?
On Monday, when St Kilda turned up the heat in the second quarter, he flooded his defence. He said the early injury to Richardson had thrown plans into disarray. What was wrong with sending Ottens to full-forward and Stafford into the ruck?
Apart from a brief flirtation with Richardson up the ground last year, when have we been surprised by Richmond's set-up?
Why is he so quick to abandon a plan that is a week in the making?
Verdict
AT this point, Frawley should complete his task. We are just three rounds into the season and the Tigers are 1-2. Perhaps 2-2 and in the eight before the day is out. Then again, if they lose tonight . . .
Brown, Ottens ... then they are struggling
DANGEROUS tradition at struggling clubs is the tendency of insiders to overrate the capabilities of the player group.
It is born of a mix of familiarity and hope. Players are compared with each other rather than with their counterparts at the stronger clubs.
Watch Richmond train and it seems the club has 15-20 players of the required quality.
Rate Richmond players with their like at the Brisbane Lions and see how many would score a spot in the line-up.
That, of course, is unfair, given we are using the best team in 50 years for comparative purposes.
Port Adelaide and St Kilda provide more appropriate comparisons. It's an interesting exercise.
By my reckoning, Richmond has one elite player: Nathan Brown.
While I had him down at No. 35 in my pre-season Top 50, he was No. 10 in the same list 12 months earlier. He probably sits somewhere in between.
Brown aside, who is "elite" at Richmond?
Brad Ottens should be, but there seems to be something missing in the big bloke. Perhaps it's urgency; maybe it's a touch of "mongrel".
While he ranked with Brown and Matthew Richardson as Richmond's best in the opening round against Collingwood, he has struggled in the past two games.
He is yet to rise to the level where he simply takes control of a game in dispute, and he has the equipment to do just that.
Brown and Ottens aside, who else could be a genuine star?
Kane Johnson is solid, smart and reliable, Mark Coughlan is a fine young player, and Andrew Krakouer might be something special, but, generally speaking, we're talking fair average quality, not prime stuff.
Here is my list of Richmond's best six. Compare it with the best six at your club: N. Brown, B. Ottens, K. Johnson, M. Coughlan, M. Richardson, W. Campbell.
Just a belly ache
RICHMOND's director of football Greg Miller says it's simplistic to say 2003 best-and-fairest winner Mark Coughlan is afflicted by the dreaded osteitis pubis.
He prefers to say Coughlan has "lower stomach restrictions".
He did admit the condition forced the young centreman to miss the team's final training session each week.
"The doctors say he'll work through and get better, so it can't be osteitis pubis. It's certainly not classical OP. He's had lower stomach restrictions."
Miller said Coughlan was paying the price of an interrupted preparation.
"He's not making excuses; he knows he can play better."
Coughlan had just five kicks against St Kilda on Monday, all in the second half. He finished with 14 disposals and spent time on the bench.
He had 18 possessions against Melbourne the previous week after starting the season with 22 against Collingwood, all before three-quarter-time, when he was rested.
Miller denied the Tigers were taking a risk with their best young player, who turns 22 next Tuesday.
"The doctors tell us every week he's getting better."
Coughlan's lack of impact cost Richmond on Monday when Brad Ottens won the bulk of ruck contests, yet St Kilda's midfielders won most of the contested ball at ground level.
Coughlan seems to be struggling most when he has to bend for the ball, a major limitation for a player whose game is based on his strength and skill at ground level.
1 gun, 12 blanks and everyone in between at Tigerland
17 April 2004 AFL
Mike Sheahan analyses the Richmond players.
Elite level: Nathan Brown.
Should be elite level: Brad Ottens.
Consistent at AFL level: Kane Johnson, Mark Coughlan, Wayne Campbell, Matthew Richardson, Mark Chaffey, Andrew Kellaway, Darren Gaspar.
Capable at the level: Joel Bowden, Greg Tivendale, Chris Newman, Aaron Fiora, Greg Stafford, Ty Zantuck, Justin Blumfield, Shane Morrison.
Struggle at the level: David Rodan, Ray Hall, Tim Fleming, Adam Houlihan, Chris Hyde, Simon Fletcher, Rory Hilton, Kayne Pettifer, Matthew Rogers, Duncan Kellaway, Ben Marsh, Bill Nicholls.
Rays of sunshine: Andrew Krakouer, Dean Hartigan, Tom Roach.
Unknown quantities: Kyle Archibald, Alex Gilmour, Daniel Jackson, Andrew Raines, Jay Schulz, Shane Tuck, Luke Weller.
Players in my 2003 end-of-season Top 50: M. Coughlan (39), K. Johnson (42).
Players in 2004 pre-season top 50: B. Ottens (15), N. Brown (35), M. Coughlan (47), M. Richardson (49).

