On A Razor's Edge:

There is really nothing good that you can take out of a 100+ point loss and when it's the 3rd one the team has suffered for the season even less so.

What has plagued Richmond badly for years and continues to do so is a large amount of players that simply do not have the ability to develop skills that allow them to dominate modern football.

Most clubs have those sort of players, they're regarded as what the legendary Jack Dyer would have referred to as 'good, ordinary footballers'. Ray Hall is one of Richmond's.

Ray didn't have an easy road to league football, he grew up in Woi Woi, a country town in NSW where rugby league is the dominant football code. He played for the ACT Rams and was drafted by Richmond at the 1998 draft, most of what got him drafted was his height, a 196 cm's he's a good ruck height. He earned himself one senior appearance in 1999, for all of about 10 mins of the last quarter against Carlton after the game was well and truly won.

2000 was a forgettable one for Ray, he spent most of it struggling with injury and was unable to add to his tally of one senior game, he was fortunate to be kept on the list for 2001. It was a good year for the young ruckman. He played most games and his take no prisoners style was a large part of the memorable win against Carlton in the semi final that year.

Ray continued to develop in 2002 and was shifted to CHB the following year, he was crude, but effective, however he regularly made skill errors, luckily he had players around him who coud mop up. One worrying trend for Ray was that he was regularly shopped around as trade bait at the end of each season.

Due to a bizarre set of circumstances in 2004, also coincidentally against St Kilda, when Jay Schulz pulled out late with an injury Ray was forced to play both CHB and CHF for a quarter. He covered so much ground that the 3AW commentary team jokingly called him Forrest Gump, and certain supporters began to refer to him as Gumpus, rather than the preferred nick name of Rayzor.

The writing was on the wall last year when Troy Simmonds took over in the ruck with Trent Knobel as his backup and the developing Adam Pattison sure to win further call ups in the future. Ray had to play at CHB or he wouldn't get a game.

His appearances this year have been sporadic and he's been well below his best, a groin injury has hampered him and I suspect that he was not fit enough to really play against the Saints, but the skill errors have just gotten beyond a joke and when your opponent kicks 10 and seemingly does it easy I'm sorry, but the bullet has to be bitten and it's time for Rayzor to move on. I think Scotty Turner had worse games early in his career, but he had youth on his side, something that Ray no longer has the luxury of.

Chris