Chris Greenway's Footy Commentary!
Rd 12 Richmond V West Coast Eagles 05/06/2009
I can’t ever remember a build up quite like this. The game was always going to generate interest because it was Benny C’s first game against his old club, but everything else really whipped it up.
First was Terry Wallace’s inglorious exit against the Bulldogs and the appointment of the caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2009 season. Most were betting on Wayne Campbell. I’m not a fan of Campbell as a coach. He hasn’t had a lot of experience and he doesn’t know a lot about winning. There were rumours that he coached the side against the Bulldogs, and if he did then I don’t ever want him getting his hands on the team as coach, because the 2nd half was one of the most inept, spineless coaching efforts I’ve ever seen. It was if they went into the rooms and the coach said: ‘Okay boys, you’re ahead, so in the 2nd half everything you’ve done to earn that lead stop doing it, if you can possibly manage it do the exact opposite.’ that was how they played, Becky.
It was a surprise when Jade Rawlings was announced. I don’t know how much you know about Rawlings. He’s from Tassie the same as Richo. He’s actually Richo’s brother in law, married Samantha; Richo’s sister. He originally played for Hawthorn as a defender, he had one good season as a forward and the Hawks sold him well above the odds on that season. He never really clicked at his new club; the Bulldogs. He had injuries and he was played as a forward, which, aside from that one season, he really wasn’t. Rodney Eade didn’t like him much as a player and let him as soon as he could. He wound up at North Melbourne, he only played the one season and I think only played one game which was a gift so he could line up with his younger brother; Brady. He retired after that and lobbed up at Tigerland as an assistant. He took over Coburg when Andy Collins left. He hasn’t done badly at Burgerland, although Collins did better. I think Richmond chose him for a couple of reasons, he was already coaching and he’s extremely unlikely to land the senior gig going forward.
Then early in the week Kane Johnson retired. I’m not really sure what was going on there. I think Kane should have retired last year. This was probably going to be his last year. He hurt his leg pre season and couldn’t get it right. I thought the timing was interesting, just after Terry (someone he seemed to have issues with as a coach towards the end) was gone and it also meant that the shuffling around of coaches (Terry out the door, Jade from Coburg to Richmond, Craig McCrae from development coach to Coburg) left an opening for Kane to become the development coach at least for the rest of this season.
On Thursday night the team selections came and neophyte coach Jade ‘the Blade’ Rawlings axes 5 veteran players and puts in 5 youngsters, including 2008 no 8 draft pick Ty Vickery for his debut. The axings and my opinion on them: Joel Bowden, Bowden gets plenty of the ball, but he is prone to lapses of concentration and can make some shocking errors. He’s also the person responsible for a lot of the negative, slowing down of play in the backline. Troy Simmonds, Troy has already been dropped once this season and has played most of it like a man who knows he won’t be there next year. Jordan McMahon, I shouldn’t have to make my thoughts on McMahon known. He was a horrible mistake and should have left with the man who brought him to the club; Terry Wallace. Kayne Pettifer, Kayne has become lazy and apathetic, he won’t be there next season. Mark Coughlan, I felt Cogs was a bit stiff. He was ordinary against the Dogs, it does make you wonder if he really is over the injury troubles. In their places were: Shane Edwards, you know I like him, I hope he gets a go, because I think he’s a decent player, needs to be handled right, though. Tom Hislop, I personally don’t think he’ll make it, just not good enough, but they won’t know unless they give him a big enough go. Ty Vickery, he’ll take a while at 200 cm, but he has to be given a taste. Robin Nahas, he was never going to be out for long, had a week off against the Dogs with injury, but came straight back the next week. Angus Graham, he was also out due to injury, he probably should have played against the Bulldogs, but they gave the injury an extra week. Until Vickery or even Putt, possibly Andrew Browne, mature, Graham will be the side’s no 1 ruckman.
The Tigers came out firing and the Eagles were deplorable. Richmond had 3 goals on the board before the Coasters had even gone inside their forward 50. The Tigers were 4 goals up at quarter time and had they kicked accurately they could have been 6 and the game would have been pretty much over.
The Eagles hardened up a little in the 2nd, but still found it difficult to score and although Richmond allowed them a goal in ‘junk time’ they didn’t make much of an inroad on the lead. The question was could the young Tigers keep this up?
The answer was yes. Although the Eagles did improve again in the 3rd quarter Richmond kept them at bay. West Coast scored better and easier, but Richmond were able to answer them and they were doing it by tackling hard, running hard, creating opportunities, actually moving the ball forward instead of backwards or sideways. They still hand balled a lot, but they also kicked the ball.
The Eagles had a good go in the last and the young Richmond outfit threatened to run out of legs, but they hung tough and were able to grind out a 15 point win. It wasn’t a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a lot better than most of the junk we’ve been forced to put up with this season. I hope the Wallace game plan has been abandoned forever. I’d rather go down having a shot than giving up.
