Richmond vs St Kilda - Game Day Thread | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Richmond vs St Kilda - Game Day Thread

Its a tough job to retire champions and do it respectfully without them feeling jadded, or worse, ending up at other clubs.

Sheds, Jack, Cotchin, Grimes all look a bit ... old.

It happens to everyone, they deserve to go out on their own terms, given what they have given to us all, but its hard to do.

Ultimately, whether the dynasty is over, depends on Dusty, if he has had enough, we should play the kids, its been a wild ride
Bachar Houli didn’t got out on his own terms
Dave Astbury is the only player who read the room
The others it’s all about the cash
$500k a year doesn’t fall out of trees
Cotchin . edwards and Jack is farcical that they have played on
 
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Hard not to see a major shake up coming if this continues,

I heard Benny say in an interview in the off season , last year we were simply tired , we played too much footy without a proper break , and this year will be different with a proper pre season ,

There was something else he said that is interesting now, he said ( not word for word ) Damian tried everything he could to get the players up but they simply didnt respond , nothing left in the tank

Well so far this year looks like a continuation of last year , we still look tired .
 
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Last year was the decline. This year will be the send off. If the club does it right we can re-generate with some quality kids and smart free agent and trade play. Id be retiring Cotchin, Edwards, Jack and possibly Lambert. Delisting Caddy, Martyn, RCD, Aarts, Ross. Would seriously look at trading Graham to a SA team and also Castagna to whoever wants him. Martin could also be moving on. Big chunk of cap and players. Id be looking at bringing in 2 ready made mids eg Green etc. We need another ruckman with craft. Soldo battles hard but has no craft. He is a chaos footballer. Would also make Jack an assistant and throw big dollars to lure Hodge as an assistant. Then go hard again at quality kids. Will be 2022 and 2023 pain and then reckon we start coming good again in 2024.
That’s all and good and I don’t necessarily disagree except to get good players we have to trade something unless they are free agents. The reality is that we might pick up a free agent and potentially trade for top liner but we would do the latter at the expense of draft picks
Bachar Houli didn’t got out on his own terms
Dave Astbury is the only player who read the room
The others it’s all about the cash
$500k a year doesn’t fall out of trees
Cotchin . edwards and Jack is farcical that they have played on
It’s not farcical at all. It is hard to predict when a player will fall off the age cliff and they are contracted players.
When you have a very successful team how they depart is difficult to manage and to get right. Look at Hawthorn, they shipped players out and it put the club back for a while.
To call it farcical is not correct. With hindsight decisions are easy.
 
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The complete breakdown that’s occurred in the Carlton & St Kilda games is a combination of ageing Champions who can longer play out a full game (or go at all in the case of Edwards), younger midfielders not up to it, injury to some extent (Prestia in game 1 & Grimes last night) and poor coaching to stem flow.

To give up 10 goals to an ordinary team like St Kilda is unforgivable. Coach seems to be in denial. This isn’t magically going to revert back to what it was. Reality is Edwards & Lambert are completely finished, Cotchin diminished, Prestia injury prone & Martin unknown.

I’d say rebuild needs to start now in entirety. Biggest issue is we have few midfielders to rebuild with. However Bolton has to be a primary mid for the rest of the year, Dow persevered with, Sonsie & Stack given games, RCD tried for next 4-5 games (more in hope). If Ross continues, it has to be in middle. Graham also has to lift and lead by example in contested ball.
 
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Its a tough job to retire champions and do it respectfully without them feeling jadded, or worse, ending up at other clubs.

Sheds, Jack, Cotchin, Grimes all look a bit ... old.

It happens to everyone, they deserve to go out on their own terms, given what they have given to us all, but its hard to do.

Ultimately, whether the dynasty is over, depends on Dusty, if he has had enough, we should play the kids, its been a wild ride
The theory was that a fit list would be competitive. Rioli back, Balta fwd, 2 rucks. But reality is 2 rucks are slow, Aarts isn't best 22. Mansell back is a better player; RCD or Sonsie should be IN. I hope JR don't play
Grimes injured. Maybe Miller maybe no one. Tall enough with Broad, Taz & Gibbo. No Prestia/Dusty and we look old and slow. 2 rucks aren't helping. Dow has been good. Parker too. Gotta play Ross in the guts or not at all.
Dogs midfield is even better. Could be a shellaking.
 
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WTF!! Chimp playing on to just take the cash? He is still going harder at the ball and man than anyone in the AFL.

Crazy and insulting talk.
Leysy, its not insulting at all to say Cotch is playing for the cash. This is a person who 6-7 yrs ago, said 1 flag would prob do him b/c he wanted to do other stuff. The Cotch's have an expensive lifestyle - just take a look at their insta. Their 2 Mercs combined cost $250k. Now whilst the Kennedy building family might have money and they've done outwardly well with flipping renovated homes, $750-$850k is a lot to give up.

Cotch doesn't look the type to stay in footy and isn't the personality to go on the speaking route and make heaps of money (he dipped his toe in with Ben Crowe after the 2020 flag and his speaking gig wasn't a success - I went, I remember it well b/c I had to drive to Geelong, a place I hate!). He might work in the Ben Crowe industry but the speaking gig needs energy and personality - not sure that is Cotch. He will prob work in the family building business.

Doesn't mean he doesn't have an awesome work ethic and is working hard with each game. Of course he gives what he can on the field.

But they have 3 young kids, the missus keeps dabbling in businesses with him that frankly never look successful. And they have a lifestyle that costs.
 
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The theory was that a fit list would be competitive. Rioli back, Balta fwd, 2 rucks. But reality is 2 rucks are slow, Aarts isn't best 22. Mansell back is a better player; RCD or Sonsie should be IN. I hope JR don't play
Grimes injured. Maybe Miller maybe no one. Tall enough with Broad, Taz & Gibbo. No Prestia/Dusty and we look old and slow. 2 rucks aren't helping. Dow has been good. Parker too. Gotta play Ross in the guts or not at all.
Dogs midfield is even better. Could be a shellaking.
Agree about the rucks. Would work if one of the rucks was mobile but alas they are both slow as a treacle especially Soldo. Nank at least has a presence around the ground. Soldo atm is useless once the centre bounce is done. Can't mark up fwd and has zero influence around the ground.
 
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Leysy, its not insulting at all to say Cotch is playing for the cash. This is a person who 6-7 yrs ago, said 1 flag would prob do him b/c he wanted to do other stuff. The Cotch's have an expensive lifestyle - just take a look at their insta. Their 2 Mercs combined cost $250k. Now whilst the Kennedy building family might have money and they've done outwardly well with flipping renovated homes, $750-$850k is a lot to give up.

Cotch doesn't look the type to stay in footy and isn't the personality to go on the speaking route and make heaps of money (he dipped his toe in with Ben Crowe after the 2020 flag and his speaking gig wasn't a success - I went, I remember it well b/c I had to drive to Geelong, a place I hate!). He might work in the Ben Crowe industry but the speaking gig needs energy and personality - not sure that is Cotch. He will prob work in the family building business.

Doesn't mean he doesn't have an awesome work ethic and is working hard with each game. Of course he gives what he can on the field.

But they have 3 young kids, the missus keeps dabbling in businesses with him that frankly never look successful. And they have a lifestyle that costs.
Pretty spot on and people that disagree mustn't have a wife or kids. Cotch on his own without a family would have retired after our 2nd flag. Cotch the husband and father will be looking for a guaranteed income.
 
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Our rucks weren't exactly tip top yesterday. Ball went down the throat of Saints players a lot.
And if that's a positioning thing with the Mids then that's another issue.
Dimma spoke about "moving magnets around" in his presser, but didn't see much of that.
 
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I don't think Cotch is only playing for money, Cotch is playing because he can still play ( when fit ) and the coach and the team, desperately want him to play.

Talking about our players as mercenaries is disrespectful IMHO, they could all have left years ago, and made a crap load more money at other clubs.

Being 3 time premiership players means the Melbourne corporate and football world is their oyster, they can pretty much do whatever they want and get paid very well without risking their bodies every week.

We need manage this respectfully, and I have every expectation that we will, as we should.

These players are Hall of famers, all time greats.
 
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I'm disappointed especially after how we started the game.

I'm quite concerned with our midfield, no winners in there and only one or two who could get a decent review. We have the same old "can't get a clearance so we chase tail" fatigue.

Teams need a minimum of two absolutely elite mids at all times and we don't even have one right now.

Might be a long year but we have to play the kids.
 
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Game against Bullies will let us know where we are this season. If they towel the Tigers up like the Blues & Saints did things are crook in Tallarook. Mid field appears to be running out of legs most probable by old father time. Did think when Grimes went off to stabilise the backline Balta would go back there but that did not occur so maybe head coach could sharpen up as well.
 
just how important is Grimes to our backline set up ....................
once he came off ............the backline fell apart
 
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One of the issues I see at clearances is that we seem to have moved away from the negating rucking style that has made Nankervis and the Tigers so successful. The extreme example was Shawn Grigg in the ruck; his job was never to win the tapout, merely to try and negate the opposition ruckman and then recover to either become a defensive tackler or an offensive runner. Frequently we would try and get a stalemate so we could set up our preference defensively/offensively after the initial 6-6-6 configuration. I think Soldo and Nankervis are trying to win decisive taps which are great if they come off but if the opposition midfield gets hold of the ball we are exposed for lack of pace in the middle. The rucks in my opinion need to shift back to a focus on negating the oppositions tapouts, keeping the ball in close and creating a 2nd ball up. This will play to out strengths more.
 
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just how important is Grimes to our backline set up ....................
once he came off ............the backline fell apart
It wasn't the backline that fell apart it was the midfield.

We sucked forward too far left our opponents out the back and didn't have the speed or desire to chase them down after the inevitable turnover.

How many times did Sinclair, Gresham, Steele run through the midfield unopposed with Graham, Castagna, Flappers et al 10m behind
 
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Hard game to watch.

We did run out of steam, and yes this may be a fitness issue. But it could also be an issue of doing too much chasing. When you are not getting the ground ball, when they have the overlap runners and we don't, our players end up doing a lot of chasing for not much reward. I reckon there are some structure issues as well as fitness issues.

The centre clearances just dropped off in the latter parts of the third and all of the last quarter. This is a serious issue but the issue is we simply don't have the players to stop this. I looked in the centre in the last quarter and saw Balta in ruck, Aarts was there and can't remember the others. But there are serious questions to be raised there. We have 2 rucks, Balta needs to be forward or back, why did we need him in ruck when we have 2? Something wrong with that. I still think Soldo can come back but it might take time. Aarts in the middle, wow, desperate.

Cotch is looking close to done, last year surely. Shedda I have more faith he can go on, he doesn't look like the Shedda we know and love, but he has to lift to keep going beyond 2022. Jack out today but another who I think can be a lot better even at his current age, but I still think it will be his last year. Unfortunately I find it hard to see Lambert returning, a hip injury for a player who runs all day is likely too much of an issue. Prestia missing is huge. Dusty missing is huge. Aarts and Ross look to be not up to AFL standard, been given plenty of tries, time to try RCD - he performs or doesn't get another contract.

Clearly need to look at the selections. I can't see an overall strategy there, are we playing the older players on merit, why aren't we getting experience into the youngsters? We also need to be looking at the fitness staff, why play Graham in Round 1 and why play Grimes today? They need not have been selected. Again, something wrong, in our best years we did not pick players until they were well and truly over their injuries.

Some coaching issues too. The mids are clearly a problem. Forward line looks fine at times and woeful at other times. After the first quarter both teams had very high scoring percentage per inside 50, ours dived at the end and StKilda ended the game with very impressive inside 50 scoring percentage - more a result of unpressured centre clearances which are close to impossible to defend. The idea of 3 tall forwards has merit, but if they all congregate at the same spot, and the opposition are there at the fall of the ball if no-one marks it, then the forward line fails. Must get better separation, must be better at positioning for the fall of the ball.

All in all a lot to work on.

Umpiring - simply putrid, grossly inconsistent and clearly not good enough for a professional league.

DS
I was thinking we had run out of steam later in the game , but in the first 2.5 qtrs we were doing more running in support and it was nothing for us to have waves of support runners in each play , we had significantly more structure than the Saints , but they stayed in the game due to our turn overs and their persistance on their part and they used the ball more simply

I could see our play from the first 3/4qtrs , with some tidying up, and getting any of our key personnel back , taking us further into finals than the Saints

Saints have had a simpler style for some years now and when they bring big effort we'll see a Sunday arvo performance
but it will have to evolve to match the level of Dees / Dogs of 2021 or Us Cats of 2020

I was liking the speed and clean hands of Dow and would be interesting to see him working with PRestia
 
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Didn't watch the game was at the Waca, not sure I can bring myself to watch it.
 
Didnt take long for some to turn on those who have given us 3 premierships.

Mercenaries, adultery etc. And its only the start of April.

For those peddling that crap cast your mind back to Melbourne who got rid of experienced players all at once. They were left with 21 year olds to lead the club. It ultimately destroyed whatever fabric was left at Melbourne.

We aint about to go down that path.
 
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