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2007 Blog: Contrast & 30,000

July 6, 2007 12:22 am
By Chris Greenway

I am getting awfully sick of narrow losses. I can’t work out where they really went wrong this time. Admittedly a couple of the coaches matchups raised eyebrows, but given the current makeup of the team there wasn’t a lot else that Terry could have done. I think it boils down to this if Richmond are going to play that fast moving, coast to coast style of football, which by the way I love and so do most observers, then they have to either work out a way of keeping the ball in their own forward line for longer or be quicker on stopping their opponents, because once there’s a breakdown the ball is quickly moved into an undermanned and undersized backline and the opposition scores.

I want to focus on 2 players and a milestone that the club reached this week. The players are contrasts in many ways. Firstly there is Nathan Foley, at under 180 centimetres Foley was always going to find it hard to break into AFL ranks. He was overlooked in the deep and star studded draft he entered and while disappointed refused to the let the dream die. Circumstances eventually saw him land a rookie spot with Richmond. He debuted in the seniors in 2005 after impressing consistently at VFL level with Coburg, one day amassing a stunning 40 + possession total. The knockers were out in force right from the time Axel, as he is fondly referred to by team mates and supporters, in reference to having the same surname as Eddie Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cop, first pulled on a Richmond jumper. He was too small, too slow, not smart enough, not strong enough, disposal was too sloppy. He was elevated onto the senior list in 2006 and kept working away at it, what many people noticed was that every time Foley got the ball he made something happen with it. Ideally the Tigers would like to have Foley in the middle feeding off the likes of Tuck and Coughlan, however injuries to Coughlan and other prime movers have meant that Foley has been forced to a lot of the extraction from the centre and has thrived on it. In the space of half a season he has elevated himself from hard working journeyman to a quick, skilled, dangerous midfielder on the verge of All Australian selection.

The contrast to Nathan Foley is Danny Meyer. Meyer was part of Richmonds ‘fab five’, selected at no 12 in the 2004 draft behind Brett Deledio & Richard Tambling. Danny Meyer has everything he needs to be a superstar player. He’s tall for his position, quick, skilled and smart, the only thing he lacked was a big body, but most young players are a little on the skinny side when they start, a few pre seasons puts muscle on their frames. Three years on and Danny is still only potential. He has all those attributes, although he hasn’t bulked up at all, but height, speed, skill and smarts aren’t much good if you can’t get your hands on the ball and that is Meyer’s problem. He should be light years ahead of players in the VFL, but he isn’t even making an impact at that level. There have been rumours about homesickness (he’s from SA) right from the beginning and it was telling that after his initial mandatory 2 year contract he was only given a one year extension. Maybe he just needed to have to work a little harder to get there like Foley had to. I wouldn’t give up on Meyer yet, but unless he can make some sort of improvement and show genuine desire to play for the Richmond football club they may decide to cut their losses and trade him to an SA club for what they can get out of it.

The final thing is membership. For the first time in history Richmond’s membership broke the 30,000 barrier! This is a marvelous achievement and shows the dedication of the club’s supporters to reach this milestone in a season where the club is last on the ladder. The members deserve plaudits for this.

2007 Blog: Tall Defenders

July 10, 2007 2:41 am
By Chris Greenway

There were a lot of reasons why Richmond lost to the Kangaroos on Sunday, chief amongst them being that the Tigers simply weren’t good enough and the old chestnut of skills evaporating under pressure cropped up again, it is also concerning that it is experienced senior players such as Joel Bowden who are the worst offenders in this category.

Another big reason why Richmond has only recorded one victory and a lot of narrow losses is tall defenders, or more accurately a lack of them. In the back half only one Richmond player is genuine key position player size. Graham Polak. The former Docker has been a revelation, but as long as Terry Wallace wants to play Polak as a free man in defence then the side will be undersized in defence and we will continue to see mismatches like Andrew Raines on Nick Riewoldt or Will Thursfield on Drew Petrie.

It is true that the side also desperately needs a young ruckman and will quite rightly use the no 1 draft pick if they get it on young ruck sensation Matthew Kreuzer, but I hope there are some tall defenders in the draft too, because it doesn’t matter how good the midfield or the forward line are the side will not progress if the defence isn’t tight.

2007 Blog: What Is Going On?

July 19, 2007 11:51 pm
By Chris Greenway

A couple of weeks ago I thought the Tigers were on the right track, they weren’t winning games, but you could see that they at least seemed to be on the right track. The 53 point loss to Hawthorn coming after a similarly easy win to the Kangaroos has changed that perception. The media are feeling the same way as the fans, although I’d take their predictions of future doom and gloom with a grain of salt, much the same things were written about the Kangaroos last year and they’re currently flying.

What has bamboozled me and others is how the Tigers are losing. Wallace’s team selections don’t seem to be sending the message he is preaching, he plays Kane Johnson with a broken hand, or at least that’s the excuse they used for Johnson’s sub standard performances, yet Brett Deledio gets rested for 4 - 6 weeks with the same injury. Terry’s insistence on playing Graham Polak as a loose man in defence means that the former Docker picks up a stack of possessions, but denies him the chance to test himself against the opposition’s best forward and also means that the role is taken by Joel Bowden who is smaller than Polak and no disrespect to Polak who has had a great season, but Bowden also uses the ball better and is more creative running out of defence.

Then there are questions of fitness and skill. Every new coach to Richmond makes the claim that the team are going to be worked hard on the track so that they can run games out and that their skills will be drilled so that they can execute better. Nearly 3 years down the track and Richmond run out of gas after the first half (they’ve only won 4 last quarters for the season) and the skills do not seem to have improved at all and every other team in the league are confident that they can out last Richmond and if they’re put under pressure will invariably cough up the ball.

It’s not good enough and unless it improves the club is in serious trouble in the future.

2007 Blog: 250

July 22, 2007 2:30 pm
By Chris Greenway

I won’t dwell on Sunday’s fiasco overmuch, other than to say that it was a completely unacceptable effort and not at all indicative of what a Tigers side can deliver, despite the excuse that they’re a young, inexperienced side. A very similar side beat Port Adelaide in Adelaide last year, so that excuse doesn’t wash anymore.

What I did want to speak about was that it was Matthew ‘Richo’ Richardson’s 250th game. While 300 games is the ultimate milestone, 250 is a great achievement. Richo has not done it easy, he’s had major injuries, a knee reconstruction forced him out midway through the 1995 season and a foot injury kept him out of nearly all of 2000. There have been various other injuries, strains and breaks throughout the career, he’s lost more than 2 seasons through injury, and that is why reaching 250 games is such a great thing. Not many players, only true champions, can take that sort of punishment and still play on.

No other player in the game can do what Richo does to a crowd. The day he kicked 10 against the Bulldogs, the entire crowd, less a few disgruntled Doggies supporters, was roaring his name and chanting ‘We want 10! We want 10!’. There is not one other player running around that can do that. He is a true champion, he bleeds yellow and black, he is Richmond and he makes me proud to be a supporter of the Tigers.

Well done big fella!

2007 Blog: More Of The Same

July 29, 2007 7:50 pm
By Chris Greenway

I don’t think many supporters expected to win against the Swans in Sydney, probably the 66 point belting that resulted was expected by many, but I for one would have liked to see a better performance.

Yes, they’re a young side and yes they are inexperienced, but why can’t they play a full game? It seems that the side can play well for a half, 3 quarters if we’re lucky and then they just fall away. In defence of the youngsters overall it’s not them who are letting the team down, it’s the older, more experienced players. After the Port Adelaide game 5 players were axed, experienced campaigners Greg Tivendale and Chris Hyde amongst them. I thought Tivendale was a little unlucky, but after Hyde’s incredible lack of awareness against Port he deserved to be dropped. Worryingly for those players with a youth policy firmly in place and emphasis on skilled players it’s a sign that the 2 veterans are more than likely not going to be at Tigerland in 2008. It was good to see players like Cleve Hughes selected and to see Daniel Connors (remember I said he was one to watch after the draft) make his debut, however I question the wisdom of selecting Andrew Krakouer, his best on ground for Coburg didn’t give the selectors much choice, but as expected he did not perform at the higher level, another player who will be lucky to survive the end of year cull. It’s players like him and Kane Johnson, who is the most uninspiring captain I can ever remember seeing at the RFC, if he didn’t have that C next to his name I couldn’t see him getting a game, that continually let the side down and make it hard for genuinely talented youngsters like Shane Edwards and Jack Riewoldt to make their way.

The pain isn’t over yet, as many underperforming players as the club can afford to shed will be dropped at seasons send and there will be plenty of more losses and poor seasons until the team is merely competitive, let alone looking at finals appearances and flags.