tonights game

[TIGER ROCKET]

any thoughts on tonight's game.gehrig only getting loose in the last quarter.was pretty well held until then.
we just semed to be one key defender short.gehrig and riewoldt kicking nine between them.
thought deledio could have been sent to the goalsquare and put some pressure on attard one out.

 

[turtle27]

My only thoughts are that Foley is a star, and will win the Jack Dyer Medal this year. And yeh, still one quality defender short.

Good to see we are still competitive with like the Saints, will win a few in the last half of the year.

 

[vegieplus]

Foley fast becoming my favourite player. Brownie has come back better than I expected. Bowden, Tuck and Richo played well. Johnson is fast becoming even more useless - Tambling and Deledio disappointing tonight.

Pretty good effort nonetheless, we could've been blown away in the last but showed some fight to in the latter half of the last quarter.

 

[Rayzorwire]

And yeh, still one quality defender short.

Are we one key defender short?

More to the point, will Polak ever be given an opponent?

Fair dinkum, he's like a protected species - you can't knock a bloke (and consequently the recruiting decision) if he never gets given a key defenders job.

I've been quite happy with the decision to recruit him, but that verdict was always pending him actually playing as a key defender - not Jason Cloke...all by himself game after game. At this rate, he'll spend his first season being hailed as a good CHB who has never played on an opponent.

Raines on Reiwoldt (providing bugger all run and nothing but Campbell kicks) while Polak plays loose man?

Give us a break Terry.

 

[Terry Tan]

Foley has improved out of sight. How quick is he!

St.kilda were always going to be a tough ask. In the last 8 games the average winning margin is 10 goals. Gehrig and Riewoldt always kick lots of goals against us. They have got a very experienced team.

We are a long way from being a winning team.

Johnson is not good enough. Next year he will be struggling to get a game, let alone being captain. What is his exact role in the team?

I still don't think Tambling is doing enough. I don't know how good he will be. Deledio also has got a long way to go.

I'm not sure if Howat or White are up to scratch. Raines has been disappointing this year and perhaps should be dropped.

 

[chrisjie]

I'm not to phased that we lost. In a way I'm kind of glad, because we tend to get way ahead of ourselves. Tonight just highlighted we still have some huge problems and a long way to go.

 

[big bruno]

I'm not sure if Howat or White are up to scratch. Raines has been disappointing this year and perhaps should be dropped.[/quote]


Must have been watching a different game to me. I thought Howart was good.

 

[Terry Tan]

Richo's decision making is often bewildering. Some of the stuff he does is just so flawed.

 

[richcogs]

Richo's decision making is often bewildering. Some of the stuff he does is just so flawed.

Spot on! Richo cost us more goals than he kicked, once again. I mean we still go to him too much. love him but also will be happy when he retire's in a way. Richo forward line structure hasn't worked for us at all the last 15 years.

 

[Rayzorwire]

I'm not sure if Howat or White are up to scratch. Raines has been disappointing this year and perhaps should be dropped.

Must have been watching a different game to me. I thought Howart was good.

Howat is like 100 other 22yo fringe onballers who are more athlete than footballer - and plays like it week after week.

To be fair, he was given Harvey for a lot of the match...he kept up and was something resembling competitive occasionally, but played the Tivendale game of leaving his opponent for three quarters of the match and being nowhere near as damaging.

Raines is not very bright. The further towards genuine responsibility he moves, the more it will become apparent. Can't kick, can't think, and shows no real potential to improve on these flaws. His spoiling has improved considerably, which is good, but small defenders need more strings to their bow.

He may get there, but I have no real confidence in that happening.

 

[Saturday@2]

Must have been watching a different game to me. I thought Howart was good.

Nope. He waqs torn a new one by Harvey. At times he simply refused to man up. Buit thats what happens when you can't win your own ball and rely on down-hill skiing to get your possesions.

 

[marco polo]

I'm not sure if Howat or White are up to scratch. Raines has been disappointing this year and perhaps should be dropped.

Must have been watching a different game to me. I thought Howart was good.[/quote]

hmm Howat just sat on a wing picking up easy possies all night, although his skills were up to scratch.
His man though, Harvey, dominated...

 

[tigers71]

Are we one key defender short?

More to the point, will Polak ever be given an opponent?

Fair dinkum, he's like a protected species - you can't knock a bloke (and consequently the recruiting decision) if he never gets given a key defenders job.

I've been quite happy with the decision to recruit him, but that verdict was always pending him actually playing as a key defender - not Jason Cloke...all by himself game after game. At this rate, he'll spend his first season being hailed as a good CHB who has never played on an opponent.

Raines on Reiwoldt (providing bugger all run and nothing but Campbell kicks) while Polak plays loose man?

Give us a break Terry.

Polak was abit disappointing tonight as he was loose but some of the Saints lesser lights ran to position and he did not man up when we did not have the ball. Anyway he has had a great 1st season with Richmond. His application has been very good this year. Terry has decided to play him loose man in defence and he has to man up!!

 

[tiger_land]

We Need To Get a stronger defence our Young Defence Just Fell Short In The 4th And it cost Us Bad

 

[mavric]

Deledio's got to work on endurance over the summer rather than his arms. Then he may finally break a tag through some gut running.

Tamblings got watch Foley to learn how to go in hard and extract the pill.

 

[Rayzorwire]

Polak was abit disappointing tonight as he was loose but some of the Saints lesser lights ran to position and he did not man up when we did not have the ball. Anyway he has had a great 1st season with Richmond. His application has been very good this year. Terry has decided to play him loose man in defence and he has to man up!!

Ask yourself if he's much of an upgrade on P Bowden playing loose man in defence then consider how valuable he is in the position. Bowden was a throw away pick who created more run than Polak can. I'm not sure Polak's marking ability provides us any more benefit - if he could do it keeping an opponent quiet that would be a different matter altogether.

The intangible benefit of having Polak loose is how often he prevents a long potent kick into the forward line because he's there lurking...but decent sides will find a way around that tactic, and IMO that's what ruckmen are for - ala Benny Gale.

 

[Jisha]

Howat is like 100 other 22yo fringe onballers who are more athlete than footballer - and plays like it week after week.

I thought Howat played a lot better then say 10 others tonight, for still a young player (most of you want a young team) i thought he played quite a good game.

Johnson is an issue, and i know you all want brown, richo or deledio as captain, but once again Newman i feel is such a great backbone for us. He pops up time and time again, and i havent been able to find any problems with him. he is tough, confident and reliable.

Deledio got tagged hard, and it has shown him that he needs to work on the fact of if he gets tagged hard. But to be fair, he still took his opponent out because i wouldnt call him a necessity player. He is fantastic, but we can play well without him.

Pettifer was fantastic, Kicked some good goals, and he put his body on the line, i would honestly be sad to lose the kid.

Richo tried, but didnt make the impact i was hoping for. I was hoping Richo would out-goal gherig, due to gherigs broken hand, but in then end their wasnt much difference between the two.

Brown was once again fantastic, for where he is at, he produced some freak goals and had that natural feel about him, he knows how to play the game fantastically, and it shows how much we have missed him.

Simmonds IMO didnt make a very big impact, coming back im glad but didnt make anywhere near any kind of impact in the game, a few tap outs, just hope he picks up again.

 

[Rayzorwire]

I thought Howat played a lot better then say 10 others tonight, for still a young player (most of you want a young team) i thought he played quite a good game.

He's not young for an outside onballer really Jisha - he's 23 in January, not 19/20.

He's never going to be a physical, competitive one on one player, he's not a penetrating, accurate kick (and with his 'easy option' decision making never seeks to be), he seldom runs lines, and against the good sides with midfield depth his opponent is always going to be more damaging.

Edwards will be a better player 2-3 years from now, as will at least a couple of others still at Coburg, maybe more.

When I stack a bloke like Howat up against other fringe mids like Hyde, or utilities like King, or the young blokes we have coming through, there is just no spot for him.

 

[Jisha]

I still think 23 is when most people expect the kids to pick up, you say all these kids are 20 and in a few years they will be good, and i think howat is starting to earn his stripes.

 

[polakthetiger]

The story all year really..competitive, but just short of the mark. Lots of things to like but..

The usual problems:

Raines decision making...long kicks to the opposition's tall drop back player or a 2 on one contest, taking the man on..... but Wallace leaving him on Reiwoldt all night was an 'interesting' one. He can learn to fix his clangers I think...

Tambling went missing..a few cheap ones late in the game helped his stats...no impact at all.

Lids still totally lost with the tag...good coaching leaving him there most of the game to give him the experience...the 4 points were not important...then threw him down back for the confidence so he can do what he has been doing for weeks...get lots of possies...10 in the last quarter maybe.

Tiv and Hyde....were Tiv and Hyde..bit rough putting Tiv in with hyde here..but hey..its Tiv.

Thursty looked way out of his class and watching him jog 3-4 metres behind big Fras. looked ordinary several times..but he will learn from tonight.

The Howat posts I find interesting as I thought he showed a bit, and tell me anyone in the league who can hold Harvey..really?? Still, Howat may be at his limit and may not have much more to offer from here, so is what he does now enough??

If Jackson was supposed to be tagging Montagna he didnt do it well enough...very damaging and although both coaches seemed to letting everyone run whereever (except Lids and Dal Santo), Montagna ran riot.

King had to be tighter on Milne too. Although Wallace may have said he could hang back if Milne went up to the wings. Petts stood up as did Patto and Simmo had a nice run around.

Johnson tagged Dal Santo well and only had 2 shocking turn overs I can remember.

Showed again we are about the mark and gaining experience and just need to clean house of a few more players.

Foley=champion!

 

[TIGER ROCKET]

good post polak the tiger!
still getting killed on the turnovers though.
jake was due to have a bit of an off night.has been playing well for two months now.
thank god for foley.he is a genuine star.
i have been singing the praises of jackson but he wasn't as tight on montangas as he should be.phyisically and mentally challenging to tag a player every week so maybe forgive him for one bad night.
i don't understand what they are doing with polak!!

 

[Runandhyde]

good post polak the tiger!
still getting killed on the turnovers though.
jake was due to have a bit of an off night.has been playing well for two months now.
thank god for foley.he is a genuine star.
i have been singing the praises of jackson but he wasn't as tight on montangas as he should be.phyisically and mentally challenging to tag a player every week so maybe forgive him for one bad night.
i don't understand what they are doing with polak!!

Its quite simple really. Polak is there to make a contest out of marking situations in our deffensive 50. Tonight was his first bad game in a few months and everyone jumps on his back. If terry has designated Polak to be the loose man in deffence then so be it, it has worked for Fletcher and Essendon for years. The Negativity should be directed towards JB who quite simply refused to be accountable. He is no longer playing the loose man role and needs to man up.

 

[Ah Cheung]

Howat did a few nice things, however most of his possessions were all uncontested. Picking them up on the wing or on a half back flank. Yes, his disposal was pretty good but when it got tough and the ball was there to be won, he preferred to run on and try and get the cheap kick.

Johnson was good in the fact that he stopped Del Santo getting too many but when Johnson did get it, his skills were not up to scratch. We seriously need to look at Johnson because compared to other captains in the league, he would be down in the bottom 3.

Deledio just needs to run and run and run. Should've tried to put him on Harvey and see if he can learn something from the great man. At the end of the game, you could see that Harvey was absolutely spent. I don't know if Deledio would be feeling the same way. However, he's still young and he'll learn from that.
Our skill errors are still the problem at the moment and have been for years. I was wondering why Thursty didn't go to Riewoldt like last year?
Raines should be told to handpass every time he gets the ball. I don't mind the running out of defence and take them on, but he's kicking is no good.

Tambling did bugger all but he still looks way to thin to be playing in the centre.
Special mention to Foley coz he is a star. Goal of the year contender for sure, if not 2 of them!

 

[krustyman]

wallace coaching was poor and he refused to make any changes compared to lyon. polak was given the run around 1st year player gilbert and need to learn how to become a chb instead of loose player in defense. Raines on riewoldt was never going to succceed and he hung him out to dry all the match.

 

[smasha]

St. Kilda had a lot to play for Harvey-Finals aspirations.

I was pretty happy with Richmonds effort.

Had a major lapse the start of the last quarter but otherwise matched it with the Saints.

Foley-fantastic game.

Polak-what a good pick up he's been.

Petts-seems to lift with Browny in the team.

Thursty-tried hard against a player double his size in bulk-like the look of this kid.

Johnson-coughs the ball up too much for my liking.

Patto-took some good marks.

Tambling-this bloke has the talent but he needs to pick up his workrate.

Edwards-this kid is gonna be a great player.

King-great run out of the backline.

Bowden-had a good game last night.


We also played an attacking brand of footy.

St. Kildas big bodies out muscled us in the end.

In a few years our kids will match em in this department.

Positive signs.