Where We Can Improve

[ARES]

Joel played midfield before his swap to HBF and was ordinary. The Occassional good game was not enough from him. He has since found consitency and confidence (tho im not sure that is a feature joel has ever lacked) in the back line and maybe he could have another stint in the midfield.

I think he played more so on the wing/HF, a few games on the ball not too many.
I would like to see him rotated through the midfield, as also Raines & Newman

There will be improvement, unfortunately we have a core of very young players with immature bodies (as expected, they are kids after all)

These players need more experience and time to mature.

 

[_RT_]

Most of us would agree that our best(experienced) midfield trio is Tuck, Johnson and Tivendale. Last year it seemed Wallace wanted to play Johnson as a HBF/tagger perhaps this year we should play Tivendale there. Now before you jump down my throat play him as the attacking HBF role we want JB to play and allow JB to play more attacking midfield roles. When he plays down back he gets his 20-25 possies but if he gets the same number forward of the centre he is going to be more damaging. We can have a group of 7 players through the centre at any stage, 2 wingers, RR, rover, centre, 2 HFF's for me that group should contain any of the following. Tuck, Deledio, Brown, Tambling, Foley, Howat, JB & PB, Johnson, Tivendale(as much as some hate him), Raines, Newman. That way we can have the kids in there along with some experienced bodies around them to take some of the heat.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Right NOW our midfield is one of the worst in the league ... if not the worst.

We are all praying that a bunch of largely unproven kids (Deledio, Tambling, Howat, Foley, Polo etc) all stand-up and are able to go head to head with the likes of Hayes, Ball, Dal Santo, Baker and Harvey.

Ain't goin' to happen. Not yet. Kids don't win games in this league.

Playing so many kids hurts us in the short-term. They don't have the stamina, strength, smarts or consistency to apply pressure in the midfield. Deledio and Tambling can't tackle Ricciuto and Goodwin over and over again. The effort wears them down. You try bringing down a 90kg tackle bag 20 times. Forget all the other running, bumping and contesting - you'd be stuffed from laying tackles.

That will change in time.

We are the worst team in the league for applying pressure. That is bad.

We are the worst team in the league for being pressured (opponents tackling, chasing, bumping us). That is bad.

Add the two together and that is catastrophic.

It means that opponents find it easy to execute skills under little pressure, and we find it impossible under immense pressure.

Until we develop a genuine finals-calibre midfield, then talk of game-plans, backlines and forward set-ups are largely academic. Our backline is overwhelmed, our forward line is starved, our running players are choked of supply and time. We can't judge how well our guys are kicking when they have no targets to kick to and are under pressure when they kick.

Our midfield is basically Johnson, Tuck and Tivendale. Brown is mostly a forward. J. Bowden is a defender. Newman off a knee, Coughlan out again. Krakouer a forward. Pettifer is a forward. Hyde an honest tryer.

You take Johnson, Tuck and Tivendale in against any team in this league and you are toast most weeks.

In a league where you need 10-12 experienced midfield contributers we have 3 (and plenty on this forum don't rate any of the 3).

For the Saints any contribution from Andrew McQualter (2nd year midfielder - 1st round draft pick) is a bit of a bonus. They can win games without him. On the other hand it is an absolute necessity for us to have Deledio, Tambling, Polo, Foley, Howat, Raines, Meyer, White, Hartigan do the work.

The core of our team is a group of 9-10 kids with less than 50 games in them.

We need another 3 seasons of games into our young midfielders. When Deledio, Polo, Foley etc are 100 game players with 4-5 seasons experince and 6 preseasons in them - then we will be able to compete in midfield.

Brilliant post, Weav.

Most folks are neglecting to mention Mark Coughlan, clearly our best midfielder. A lot of faith was put in him being our key onballer, and to lose him through long-term injury is just deadset bad luck, and certainly not the fault of the current coach. Likewise Brown and Newman, all three are a good three or four years ahead of blokes like Deledio, Raines, Polo, Tambling, Foley etc, so they need to be given adequate time to develop.

I think I've moved on from seeing premierships as the only measure of success - there's a very big chance that I will not see a Richmond flag in the next couple of decades. Even overlooking for a moment the added advantages that a handful of clubs have over us, just pure mathematics will reveal how difficult winning flags is in this day and age for a team like Richmond. Even finals appearances are never going to average out at any more than a 50% chance of occurring. Get used to it. the only way to dramatically increase those odds of a flag would be to merge with another club and reap all of the benefits forthwith. But would cashing in our soul be worth that probable inevitable pleasure? Very doubtful.

If we can't gain some satsifaction out of simply watching our young players develop in a Tiger jersey, then there's a very fair chance that we'll struggle to derive any pleasure from our footy watching.