Thoughts On The Richmond Game

[Stiffy_18]

It is a worry Stiffy and this is where the sprinkling of quality players is important.

Macca made less mistakes than many others. I thought he was very good today and it was probably his best game of the year, given that he did have not as much help from others in the side.

No doubt about that. McLeod, Edwards and Doughty were the most skilled today IMHO. They are the ones that didn't panic and hit targets. Just about everyone else craped their shorts.

Having said that, I thought Reilly was another one that really tried to create something and generally used his footy well. One thing that he needs to really stamp out of his game is the tendancy to drag the ball in and lay on it. He gets pinged every time he does that, and rightly so. He needs to be a bit smarter in those situations.

 

[crowie]

It's ok guys. Look at the bright side, we're not Geelong.

 

[CrowMagnum]

It's ok guys. Look at the bright side, we're not Geelong.

You're right, we've lost 2 games by a total of 5 points (one was to Richmond!) so it's hardly wrist slashing time yet.

 

[lozstar]

It's ok guys. Look at the bright side, we're not Geelong.

i went to that game saturday night, at the end of the game, the geelong supporters looked so depressed.... had never expected them to lose by that much.
so yes, thank god we are not geelong!

 

[drakeyv2]

Yes!! Yes!! and yes again!!

Craig can say what he likes, but even though our players played sh ithouse today, the game was lost in tthe coaching box.

I was screaming for man on man accountability from the beginning of the 2nd quarter. It was that easy to see. Sadly Craig's lack of coaching response today made him look like a clone of Gary Ayres or Grant Thomas, and he is normally miles better than that.

Today tells me we have no hope of winning a flag. Good teams will always lose games, but not in the manner that we lost today.

I don't accept this is right. I doubt Craig said "don't win the contested ball, make sure your tackles don't stick, don't block for your team mates, burn the ball where ever possible & above all miss easy goals in a low scoring game."

I'm prepared to guess that they were told to man up but just didn't.

The fact is, even though we played like , if we had kicked straight we would have won. Mattner's miss fro a set shot in the last 1/4 is a good example.

Blaim the players.

 

[Dandy_GO]

Well I certainly picked a great game to drive over for.
There was a crapload wrong with this game, but one thing that I was thinking about for at least half the game was something that I haven't noticed anyone else comment on thus far (although I may just be blind).
I wanted to know why we didn't try and force a one-out contest between Roo and Raines at any stage.
Yes they flooded our forward line like hell, but if we push all our players bar roo up the ground, and bomb it forward at every chance, then I have no doubt that Roo would slaughter young Raines - he's twice his freaking size. Given the huge mismatch here, I don't know why it was never at least attempted - it should not be that hard to do - despite Richmonds tactics. Roo was getting thrown off by the flood and Raines's pace every time - mix it up and play to the strength of the matchup. When your most effective forward is being beaten by a kid half his size, and NOTHING is done about it, then there really is something wrong.

 

[- PC -]

I felt Roo had one of those days where the frees just didnt come no matter how many times he was scragged and just didnt get back into it

 

[Stafford678]

Well I certainly picked a great game to drive over for.
There was a crapload wrong with this game, but one thing that I was thinking about for at least half the game was something that I haven't noticed anyone else comment on thus far (although I may just be blind).
I wanted to know why we didn't try and force a one-out contest between Roo and Raines at any stage.
Yes they flooded our forward line like hell, but if we push all our players bar roo up the ground, and bomb it forward at every chance, then I have no doubt that Roo would slaughter young Raines - he's twice his freaking size. Given the huge mismatch here, I don't know why it was never at least attempted - it should not be that hard to do - despite Richmonds tactics. Roo was getting thrown off by the flood and Raines's pace every time - mix it up and play to the strength of the matchup. When your most effective forward is being beaten by a kid half his size, and NOTHING is done about it, then there really is something wrong.

Sorry but we didnt flood, it was the crows who create a flood across half back, so we came up with a way to try and beat the flood. Im not saying the flood is bad etc becuase its been working for the crows, and if we had of just bombed the ball into our foward line eg to Richo, you guys would have spoiled it and ran away with it.

Ricciouto didnt really get scragged becuase he was barely anywhere near the ball, he didnt really get that good of delivery. Very good win for us becuase the crows are probably overall one of the best teams this year along with west coast and sydney

 

[Dandy_GO]

Sorry but we didnt flood, it was the crows who create a flood across half back, so we came up with a way to try and beat the flood. Im not saying the flood is bad etc becuase its been working for the crows, and if we had of just bombed the ball into our foward line eg to Richo, you guys would have spoiled it and ran away with it.

Ricciouto didnt really get scragged becuase he was barely anywhere near the ball, he didnt really get that good of delivery. Very good win for us becuase the crows are probably overall one of the best teams this year along with west coast and sydney

The hell you didn't. Our forward line was constantly full of Richmond players. We would kick it in there, and it would be a 3 on 1 favouring your blokes. This happened time and time again.That's flooding.
Yes, we flooded too. I never said we didn't. But it CANNOT be said that we were alone in that.
Roo was barely able to get near the ball because we were tactically beaten. A decent coach CAN force a one-on-one contest in the square, and I see no reason why the crows couldn't have tried it at some stage. Yes it's very different from our previous game plans this year, but Roo is our best player - if he's not fit enough to play in the midfield, then we need to try and get him into the game somehow.

 

[Crow-mo]

Sorry but we didnt flood, it was the crows who create a flood across half back, so we came up with a way to try and beat the flood.

err... you do realise what a truly stupid thing you have just said?

 

[arrowman]

err... you do realise what a truly stupid thing you have just said?

No, I doubt that he does. The main board is full of posts from Richmond supporters talking about how Wallace's (excellent, effective) game plan was designed to "overcome Adelaide's flooding".

Apparently playing keepings-off and moving the ball painfully slowly, allowing your opponents to move back in numbers, and then refusing to kick to a contest because you know you will lose the contested ball and you know that your more skilled and fitter opponents will then just run it straight back past you - apparently that is "necessary to overcome the flood".

Ah well, whatever helps them sleep at night.

 

[GoSarge]

Apparently playing keepings-off and moving the ball painfully slowly, allowing your opponents to move back in numbers, and then refusing to kick to a contest because you know you will lose the contested ball and you know that your more skilled and fitter opponents will then just run it straight back past you - apparently that is "necessary to overcome the flood".

Ah well, whatever helps them sleep at night.

The irony is, that may win them the odd game of football, but it wont win finals footy. Simple as that. For that reason alone, I dont know why teams practice it

 

[arrowman]

The irony is, that may win them the odd game of football, but it wont win finals footy. Simple as that. For that reason alone, I dont know why teams practice it

I don't have a problem with what Richmond did, while you are right (and Sheedy is right to say it doesn't develop the team), they were coming off two massive losses and there was nothing wrong with "holding the fort" for one game and trying to restore some confidence. I don't think they will play like that every week from now on.

Kind of like us v the Kangaroos in 2004 after the Brisbane debacle.