The March to the finals- 2015.

[AngryAnt]

If you don't win the Grand Final by at least 80 points the year must be considered a failure, because %age is very important

 

[Chimptastic]

I don't agree about Lennon, Chimpa. I think he's emerging youth. And despite starting his career in the role of midfielder Lids is now a forward.

But yeah. We need a forward or two.

I meant he's depth in the context of this season. Jack is our only pure forward at this point in time.

Deledio is a champion player in any position, but not necessarily as a result of his pure forward instincts (eg. he rarely kicks over 2 goals in a match).

I'm pretty much just stating the obvious and describing why we're a low scoring team. We lack natural forwards with the type of smarts that result in easy goals. I understand the confidence in our team as a whole but I would've thought it's pretty obvious our forward line needs work.

Dimma will open up the game when we have the forward talent IMO.

 

[Chimptastic]

Very incorrect.

Cotchin, Deledio, Edwards and Martin would each score at least 30 goals a season if they played solely in the forward line. They are outstanding forwards. It's just that they are even better midfielders.

They've each done at least mid 20s in a season despite playing significant amount of time in the middle.

Any one of those players in the forward line is an absolute weapon. Nothing would be better for Richmond's current line-up than AFL-wide reduction in substitutions so that they remain on the park longer against equally tired opponents and "resting" in the forward line.

I love the ability of our gun mids to rest forward and make an impact. But they don't all kick 30+ goals each every year. It's like saying Gary Ablett could kick 50 goals as a full-time forward, which he probably could, but it doesn't mean you can say Gold Coast have a great forward line this week. We either need more natural forwards, or more midfielders to allow our current ones to play forward.

Either way, the reality is we're currently a 10-goal-a-week team playing the likes of Morris, Gordon, Newman, Lloyd, etc up forward on a consistent basis. Vickery and Griffiths are both good players, but they're not instinctive forwards (especially Griff).

It's definitely an area of weakness IMO, we can't rely on our handful of stars to cover both the midfield and forward line every week.

It's not an issue in finals, but it could cost us a top 4 spot on percentage. By next year I expect that we will rectify this.

 

[Dyer'ere]

I meant he's depth in the context of this season. Jack is our only pure forward at this point in time.

Deledio is a champion player in any position, but not necessarily as a result of his pure forward instincts (eg. he rarely kicks over 2 goals in a match).

I'm pretty much just stating the obvious and describing why we're a low scoring team. We lack natural forwards with the type of smarts that result in easy goals. I understand the confidence in our team as a whole but I would've thought it's pretty obvious our forward line needs work.

Dimma will open up the game when we have the forward talent IMO.

I agree, Chimp.

 

[Tigertough1974]

Top 4 minimum as a pass mark.

We were half a game off top 4 in 2013 and threw away a spot in our insipid loss to Carlton in rd 20 that year.

Threw away top 4 chance last year with horror first 13 games.

Cant keep spurning opportunities year in year out.

If we don't finish top 4 minimum we are just spinning our wheels.

If not sack the board? or perhaps hire someone with ambition and vision like your self or other posters?

 

[toby64]

Well top 4 is now done and dusted.

2 more wins needed to get in, probably 3 if we want to have a home final.

The gap between our best and worse is still too wide, so no game from hereon in is a certainty.

Going to be nervous times IMO...tonight showed we arent as good as many think.

 

[year of the tiger]

relax- we will get those 3 wins

 

[tiges]

relax- we will get those 3 wins

If we play like we did tonight we won't .

 

[Dyer'ere]

From here we rest everybody most of the time. Then bank all players to get over the finals line.

We now want to finish eighth and fresh.

We gotta rest players.

If we don't win a final this year everybody is sacked.

 

[seven]

We will finish 6-7 on the ladder.
Just got a bad feeling we'll get knocked out again.

 

[toby64]

We will finish 6-7 on the ladder.
Just got a bad feeling we'll get knocked out again.

Team virtually the same as those who have choked on the big stage past 2 years.

Why would this year be any different?

Too many deer in the headlights

 

[year of the tiger]

We will finish 6-7 on the ladder.
Just got a bad feeling we'll get knocked out again.

yes and no - hopefully we finish 6th but I am confident we can win that final or 2 because this year we have proved that we can consistently bring an A grade game against the best teams (Freo x 2, Sydney and Haw). We have proved that we can play finals type footy successfully whereas last year we had not really done that against the top 4 sides (Last Sydney game aside as they rested players)

 

[Tigerfan]

relax- we will get those 3 wins

We must bank wins against Suns collingwood and Essendon.
I'm sure deledio wasn't the only one with the flu

 

[French Tiger]

We must bank wins against Suns collingwood and Essendon.
I'm sure deledio wasn't the only one with the flu

Looked very flat didn't we, we looked like we were playing against ourselves, they kept the ball of us like we have been doing to teams

 

[Tigerfan]

2015. 2014 2013
R1 v Carlton - WIN!!! (27) 1-0. 0-1. 1-0
R2 v BullDogs LOSS (19) 1-1 1-1 2-0
R3 v Brisbane WIN. (79) 2-1 1-2. 3-0
R4 v Melbourne LOSS (32) 2-2 1-3. 3-1
R5 v Geelong LOSS. (9) 2-3 2-3. 3-2
R6 v North. LOSS (35) 2-4 2-4. 3-3
R7 v Collwood. WIN (5) 3-4. 2-5. 4-3
R8 v Power. WIN (33) 4-4 2-6. 5-3
R9 v Essendon WIN (13) 5-4 3-6. 5-4
R10 v Freo. WIN. (27) 6-4 3-7. 6-4
R11 V WCE. LOSS (20) 6-5 3-8. 7-4
R12 v Sydney. WIN. (18) 7-5 3-9. 8-4
R13 v Giants WIN. (9) 8-5 3-10 9-4
R14 v Carlton WIN. (30) 9-5 4-10. 9-5
R15 v Saints Win. (16). 10-5 5-10. 10-5
R16 v FReo. LOSS (4). 10-6 6-10. 11-5
R17 V Hawth. WIN (18) 11-6 7-10. 11-6
R18 v Crows. LOSS (36) 11-7 8-10. 12-6
R19 v Suns 9-10. 13-6
R20 v Collingwood. 10-10. 13-7
R21 v Essendon 11-10. 14-7
R 22 v North. 12-10. 15-7

:gotigers

 

[Tigerfan]

We've got three 'must win' games coming up.

Then our finals start a week early with North.

 

[clown]

Play like we did last night again and we will be watching other teams play finals

 

[Rosy]

.......
Then our finals start a week early with North.

I wonder what North team will show up this weekend against the Dees. A decent win could see them climb a couple of places.

 

[ninjahaha]

Equal to our worst performance of the season.

We have lost 3 of 12. Since we started on the right path after the pies.

Last year we won 9 in a row and people where happy to right off all those wins as non-representative of where we where at.


Last night was not indicative of our form line. We had a shocker. I know I'll be shot down, but I think some other factors had a large influence on that. Dusty was about the only one of our best players that didn't have a mere. That won't happen again.


Still think that next year will be the culmination of all the gains we have made. This year has seen us take a massive step forward. We could still do some serious damage come finals. Either way, we have a side ready to challenge for the prize.

 

[AngryAnt]

Equal to our worst performance of the season.

We have lost 3 of 12. Since we started on the right path after the pies.

Last year we won 9 in a row and people where happy to right off all those wins as non-representative of where we where at.


Last night was not indicative of our form line. We had a shocker. I know I'll be shot down, but I think some other factors had a large influence on that. Dusty was about the only one of our best players that didn't have a mere. That won't happen again.


Still think that next year will be the culmination of all the gains we have made. This year has seen us take a massive step forward. We could still do some serious damage come finals. Either way, we have a side ready to challenge for the prize.