Not good enough: Frawley
12:05:38 PM Mon 11 August, 2003
Matt Burgan
afl.com.au
Richmond coach Danny Frawley has spoken publicly about his side’s 80-point thrashing - dished out by St Kilda at Telstra Dome on Saturday night - by stressing that the club will continue to ‘look forward’ and ‘stick together as much as we can’.
Although Frawley admitted that it was a ‘disappointing loss’ he said that he wanted to ‘get on the front foot’ and speak about the performance early in the week, rather than continue to have the pressure mounting as time wore on.
“Normally I only speak on a Friday, but because of the performance we put on on Saturday night, we realised it was totally unacceptable and we wanted to make sure that our supporters and members knew that from the coach down to the boot-studder that it wasn’t good enough,” Frawley said.
Frawley said the only positive out of the game was the fact that ‘we’ve got three weeks to rectify’ the situation.
“There is only one thing we can do and that’s work hard out on the track and come out against a steamed up, fired up Essendon on Sunday,” Frawley said.
“We realise we’ve got three weeks left, but I suppose we look at Nathan Burke for an example. We probably talked about that as a group. He’s finished on the right note of his career and he hasn’t got the opportunity to prove himself anymore, but we have got an opportunity.
“That’s the real positive out of Saturday night’s game – the only positive that we can take out of it and we’ve just got to move forward.”
However, Frawley was adamant that not all of the spotlight should be on Richmond, as he indicated that St Kilda should deserve the plaudits for its performance.
“You’ve got to give the opposition credit here. To stand here and say ‘Our efforts weren’t acceptable’, which they weren’t, is probably putting a blight on the St Kilda footy club,” Frawley said.
“They had one of their icons playing and we knew that they were going to come out hard and play the game to the end.
“They played terrific football. They proved that the week before too, so I don’t want to be standing here and belittling their performance by any stretch.”
When asked about his team’s game plan, Frawley admitted that it was the ‘first time we may have let the opposition in for too many easy goals’, while he acknowledged that his side was not direct enough in recent times.
“Over the last couple of weeks that may have crept in, but I believe over the year that hasn’t been the case,” Frawley said.
“I’m sure Saturday’s game in isolation does prove that we had more possessions and (that we) didn’t kick enough goals, so we need to move the ball a hell of a lot quicker than we did on Saturday night.
“We weren’t happy with the way we played in a whole range of areas – our attack at the contest, the way we moved the ball, the way we used the ball and the way we didn’t hit our teammates.
“We realise that it was unacceptable but we knew that two weeks previous, we were on the right track.”
“As I said, we’re moving forward. We delved into it yesterday and all we can focus on is ourselves more importantly and get some respect amongst our teammates.”
12:05:38 PM Mon 11 August, 2003
Matt Burgan
afl.com.au
Richmond coach Danny Frawley has spoken publicly about his side’s 80-point thrashing - dished out by St Kilda at Telstra Dome on Saturday night - by stressing that the club will continue to ‘look forward’ and ‘stick together as much as we can’.
Although Frawley admitted that it was a ‘disappointing loss’ he said that he wanted to ‘get on the front foot’ and speak about the performance early in the week, rather than continue to have the pressure mounting as time wore on.
“Normally I only speak on a Friday, but because of the performance we put on on Saturday night, we realised it was totally unacceptable and we wanted to make sure that our supporters and members knew that from the coach down to the boot-studder that it wasn’t good enough,” Frawley said.
Frawley said the only positive out of the game was the fact that ‘we’ve got three weeks to rectify’ the situation.
“There is only one thing we can do and that’s work hard out on the track and come out against a steamed up, fired up Essendon on Sunday,” Frawley said.
“We realise we’ve got three weeks left, but I suppose we look at Nathan Burke for an example. We probably talked about that as a group. He’s finished on the right note of his career and he hasn’t got the opportunity to prove himself anymore, but we have got an opportunity.
“That’s the real positive out of Saturday night’s game – the only positive that we can take out of it and we’ve just got to move forward.”
However, Frawley was adamant that not all of the spotlight should be on Richmond, as he indicated that St Kilda should deserve the plaudits for its performance.
“You’ve got to give the opposition credit here. To stand here and say ‘Our efforts weren’t acceptable’, which they weren’t, is probably putting a blight on the St Kilda footy club,” Frawley said.
“They had one of their icons playing and we knew that they were going to come out hard and play the game to the end.
“They played terrific football. They proved that the week before too, so I don’t want to be standing here and belittling their performance by any stretch.”
When asked about his team’s game plan, Frawley admitted that it was the ‘first time we may have let the opposition in for too many easy goals’, while he acknowledged that his side was not direct enough in recent times.
“Over the last couple of weeks that may have crept in, but I believe over the year that hasn’t been the case,” Frawley said.
“I’m sure Saturday’s game in isolation does prove that we had more possessions and (that we) didn’t kick enough goals, so we need to move the ball a hell of a lot quicker than we did on Saturday night.
“We weren’t happy with the way we played in a whole range of areas – our attack at the contest, the way we moved the ball, the way we used the ball and the way we didn’t hit our teammates.
“We realise that it was unacceptable but we knew that two weeks previous, we were on the right track.”
“As I said, we’re moving forward. We delved into it yesterday and all we can focus on is ourselves more importantly and get some respect amongst our teammates.”
