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IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
Damien Hardwick
- Thread starter Tigers of Old
- Start date
Game long dead n buried, waste of time trying to pretend you're coaching your arse off or get all agitated n carry on like a pork chop. Watch the game cogitate hard n work out what immediate and long term future decisions need to be made. Bloke's not stupid, he's a premium coach n a bean counter as well. He'll analyse the data, crunch the numbers n work out what the future requires.
I think the biggest issue is Kingsley not looking after our mids.
Hopefully the soft cap increases so we can bolster up our assistant coaches.
Actually TF he and his assistants have had over half a season to adjust our game plan but by round 14 we are going backwards.
Jesus, look out. A bunch of new Judas' on the horizon. He turned us round before most of the assistants were here. he Changed from 2016 to 2017.
I've said it elsewhere and agree with TF. How many small bodied high endurance running players did we draft, to support our surging chaos ball? We were full of them.
The games been moved away from that. Now it's about crack in hard, play keepings off and try score a goal. There's no reward for being a Richmond man, we've now go to compete with a list that was built for a different style.
The only thing Hardwick needs to answer is, does he have the energy to rebuild and go again. Sheedy did it. Others have too. Hardwick has the talent and the nous. Does he have the passion?
I've said it elsewhere and agree with TF. How many small bodied high endurance running players did we draft, to support our surging chaos ball? We were full of them.
The games been moved away from that. Now it's about crack in hard, play keepings off and try score a goal. There's no reward for being a Richmond man, we've now go to compete with a list that was built for a different style.
The only thing Hardwick needs to answer is, does he have the energy to rebuild and go again. Sheedy did it. Others have too. Hardwick has the talent and the nous. Does he have the passion?
This.
We have changed our style and are moving the ball much slower. Way too slow. We don't have the players for the precise chip mark possession game plan. Our one wood is the quick ball movement with players running in waves from behind linking by hand. We've gone away from this big time and on a big ground like the G we have been exposed. No coincidence our big defeats this year have come on the G. We were invincible here coz we would swarm the opposition and then spread quickly in the open. We have been spooked by the new rule and have gone away from what made us great. Unless we reset and find the richmond way of playing again then we are gone and it'll be a big fall.
The new game plan is like a bandaid on gangrene. We still just blindly bomb the ball into fwd 50, only now the defense is already set up.
AFL has been working hard to combat what RFC has achieved. Its extrodinary.
Well said General too.
Even Leppa admission he was spewing he was talking to SHocking in the off season, he took that info off Leppa and changed the rules to combat us what we were doing. Pathetic by the AFL imo.
I have faith Dimma will change and see players traded and inject types we need.
Will be interesting changes he makes over the next few weeks with the players we have.
P.S. Hope Leppa comes back
Well said General too.
Even Leppa admission he was spewing he was talking to SHocking in the off season, he took that info off Leppa and changed the rules to combat us what we were doing. Pathetic by the AFL imo.
I have faith Dimma will change and see players traded and inject types we need.
Will be interesting changes he makes over the next few weeks with the players we have.
P.S. Hope Leppa comes back
The rules have made it harder to defend the Richmond way, we've been going at 70-75 points against and are up to 83 this year. We haven't found a way to claw those points back in attack. The forward mix has lost cohesion, goalkicking seems to be more individual efforts than teamwork. Geelong, Brisbane, Bulldogs, West Coast, Port are all scoring at 5-year highs.
Lynch being injured/playing injured hasn't helped.
Lynch being injured/playing injured hasn't helped.
Understand all that but we will fall away very quickly if we change to slow football. I would advise Hardwick to stick to a winning formula and tweak some things to combat the rule changes. Seems we've cut off our nose to spite our face. Go back to training methods of 2017 to 2020 and get some zip and spark back into our game and into our players. If the new rules beat us then so be it but we need to be true to ourselves and the methods that have brought us success, at least with the current senior core players if we want to win another flag or 2. We can't play slow football in the same way other teams can't play fast swarming pressure finals football.
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Not sure the players can get up and back anymore with the extra defensive running required. The ball has been coming out of our forward line too easily all year. Hardwick knows the jig is up.
You have to go down swinging with what you know. We need to double down on our flag winning formula despite the rule changes. Hardwick talks about system all the time and football is about instincts and knowing your role in a system. Our players look confused and are second guessing their every move. Once you start doing that you're in strife. Play to your strengths.
Maybe he feels like we no longer have the petrol tickets to play that game style?
Nonetheless that style does not suit us and it’s very 2016. Hardwick needs to be very careful how he manages the next 8 weeks.
There are a few things in this.
Firstly, this was one game, yep, it was a really bad one, but still one game.
You can't write off Hardwick, he has 3 premierships, clearly he can coach. Enough said on that.
The rule changes have made things harder. It appears close to impossible to lock the ball in your forward half now. Interestingly last night I noticed things like Richmond allowing the opposition to chip it around, under no pressure, in our forward line - it reminded me of the 2018 PF. I watched Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and they did not allow this, they were pressuring the opposition when the opposition had the ball in their forward line. None of this easy switch across the ground and defend further up the ground - they would pressure and also defend further up the ground. Like we used to do.
But the rule changes have not changed the game enough for us to radically play a different game. We need to tweak not try and change our style. We also seem to have forgotten one of the best things about 2017 - our game plan was built around the players we had. We need to get back to playing to our strengths rather than being reactive to the opposition strengths, I think they have tipped the balance a little the wrong way there. Make the opposition respond to how we play, not the other way around.
If we had actually turned up to play last night we probably would have won. They looked really listless, StKilda didn't exactly look spritely either. The whole game lacked energy, the crowd included. A very flat night all around.
We must learn to combat teams that can pass the ball down the ground and create the loose man 20-30m forward, something is wrong with the structure there.
The forward line is clearly an issue. The gold standard of forward entries is the set shot from about 30m out. We managed a couple of them in the first 10 minutes yet could not capitalise. So, we are capable of creating decent forward entries, not often enough but we can do this, but even when we do manage this we don't capitalise. I have no idea what the issue here is but all forwards need to be doing the basics starting with goal kicking practice.
Richmond are far from done. 2021 is likely gone, but we have young players, we have some older players who need to retire and some older players who will be valuable for a few years to come, we have a good draft hand - time to look at how we get back to the top over the next couple of seasons - not in 5 years time because we are still close enough to keep contending.
DS
The media hasn't awarded any Richmond people due credit other than Martin.
“Damien was always the smartest coach tactically I’d been involved with in my time in footy."
- Justin Leppitsch
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/...s/news-story/1ef6622eece0e453519c065edd54299e (paywalled)
