When will Bernie go !!

[AngryAnt]

Despite the normal abuse and bullying you get for pointing out the obvious...

I was bemused also that Adelaide losing was the catalyst for Bernie and the club copping flack.

Tis a strange universe, the PREverse! A website that exists so you can cleanse your suffering by hating the club you have running through your veins, or release that aching by pointing out how ridiculous that hate gets! Maybe find inner peace inflating your ego by ridiculing anyone who disagrees with your hate!

Indeed. But don't worry about Carter - as I rarely respond to his jibes these days he seems to want to have a crack when I reply to other people instead.

Stalking ain't what it used to be.

Anyway, the narrow loss that pains me most this season was our Sydney loss, when Shai looked unstoppable in the first half and they ran us down in the last. Partly because it would have stopped their run of wins at about four or five, but also because it would have shown where we were truly heading as a team... now you can't win 'em all, but that was one that really hurt.

On Dimma, the idea that he must at least win a final this year has been around for ages and most brightsiders would agree, even though this season has been a really enjoyable one so far.

 

[lamb22]

Some good posting this morn, with only the occasional foray into elbow to the rib tickling.

Disagree with Sin and others that say 2018 is when we locked and loaded. I started a thread which showed basically that since 2013 we are about the fifth best side. Despite that, 9 other sides have made preliminaries or grand finals. For whatever reason we have clearly under-performed and not taken opportunities that were there for us.

Our 'window' has been opened since 2013. We were good enough to finish top 4 in 2013, 2015 and this year and probably 2014 as well. We just never crawled through the window. Not to say we should have snagged a flag in those year but if you put yourself in the mix you never know. I also believe out finals failures contributed to Hawthorn's easier than normal run with strings of games at the MCG against interstate sides in GFs and PFs.

Our finals failures were not down to the list. We didn't lose to 'top 4' teams. We lost to Carlton and Norh FFS. Only Port was really up and running and a threat that year. Something else was at play and at the heart it was coach driven. Poor mental preparation, poor selection, poor game plan, poor match day. Take your pick. The elements were all there and finally acknowledged this year when so many, but not all, of those issues were addressed rather than ignored.

For what it's worth I believe we have a poorer list this year than previous years and so the coaching effort is better. Our percentage puts us at about 6th or 7th. We've had an easy draw. Remarkably had we taken our chances rds 7 -9 we might well be first or second locked away for a home final.

At the moment I don't think we will make top 4. We have ferocious competitors still as our top 4 but they are getting weary , Martin excluded (particularly Jack). This is actually our moment. The year of the easy draw and no standout team. The game plan is better , less liabilities being gifted games but we still have so many issues, no second ruck. No real forward bar Jack. Markov, Broad ten games or so, Graham first game, Our vaunted pressure trio 70 games between them. Grigg in career worst form. Houli still chokes under pressure. Kmac treading water.

Freo game is another watershed game. In my bones I agree with Baron. We will come out and keep them in the game. We will have 60 inside 50s but twaddle around. We wont put them away and it will be finger nail biting squeaky arse time till final siren.

I just hope we finally assert ourselves and tackle these last two games as we should and then anything can happen finals time.

 

[AngryAnt]

We will come out and keep them in the game. We will have 60 inside 50s but twaddle around. We wont put them away and it will be finger nail biting squeaky arse time till final siren.

That's been the experience pretty much the whole year so it's not controversial - you can never relax at a Richmond game. Having said that it's getting towards junk time at the end of the H&A season for Freo and (almost) St Kilda so you never know - sometimes teams just don't turn up in those circumstances.

Us though - we have no excuse not to turn up for these two games. All to play for. I'm quietly confident we can make top four, but will no doubt be the usual nervous mess game time Sunday and Sunday week.

 

[MD Jazz]

Dimma has never been great at games we absolutely need to win.

Why? Because you need a positive, attacking mindset. You need to attack the goal face and put the oppo to the sword early, especially at a place like Domain.

Freo, like any plucky also-ran, will put up some fight and niggle for all of five minutes, then collapse.

Well, they would against other finals bound units.

Dimma doesn't coach that way.

Tomorrow's game will be another "test" against an "outstanding" unit. We will provide the dockers more than one chance to win the game.

How refreshing it'll be if we just roll out, ride the inevitable pisweak challenge on the first quarter, then go on from there.

But Dimma isn't a good enough coach to instil that kind of confidence. Ross will have laced our path to September with pit traps and mine fields.

I'm no Dimma fan but that's some tripe just there

 

[Baron Samedi]

I'm no Dimma fan but that's some tripe just there

Cool.

 

[Tigerdangerous]

"The welfare of the player is always the first and foremost thing in our minds, and for Chris to find God to get his life back on track is certainly exciting for him," Hardwick said. Well I’m not surprised he said that and I’m not surprised the kindergarten masquerading as a footy club down at Punt Road would endorse such a mindset.

I still believe the priority of any AFL club is to win a premiership (rather than playing mother hen) and the continued inability of the club and Hardwick as head coach to achieve that and along the way make blinding mistakes like actually recruit a Yarram is by any measure examples of failure. There are many more examples of Hardwick’s poor coaching record that have been discussed ad infinitum on this site.

When will Bernie go? Without the need to sit on a fence and debate this topic further; I hope he is gone by October and the RFC have done their job properly and have a better replacement ready to go.

 

[Baron Samedi]

Despite the normal abuse and bullying you get for pointing out the obvious...



I was bemused also that Adelaide losing was the catalyst for Bernie and the club copping flack.



Tis a strange universe, the PREverse! A website that exists so you can cleanse your suffering by hating the club you have running through your veins, or release that aching by pointing out how ridiculous that hate gets! Maybe find inner peace inflating your ego by ridiculing anyone who disagrees with your hate!


:spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin





Big ups to those who have managed to ignore it all and talk footy!

do you write in MS DOS or something?

 

[Baron Samedi]

right, so we somehow miss top four, draw Melbourne for an EF and scrape in a win.

in week two we bow out to a rampaging Sydney by 63 points. should Dimma survive?

no bloody way. enough with the mediocrity of small gains.

this year, being as open as it is, Dimma needs to bite deep into september or he can pack his bags.

 

[TigerForce]

do you write in MS DOS or something?

:hihi

 

[Harry]

Geez the cats jump to second and we slide down to 6th.

Bernie would be getting weak at the knees right about now.

 

[Baron Samedi]

Geez the cats jump to second and we slide down to 6th.

Bernie would be getting weak at the knees right about now.

old bernie may need more than five assistants to prop him up in the box.

 

[Ridley]

That's been the experience pretty much the whole year so it's not controversial - you can never relax at a Richmond game. Having said that it's getting towards junk time at the end of the H&A season for Freo and (almost) St Kilda so you never know - sometimes teams just don't turn up in those circumstances.

Us though - we have no excuse not to turn up for these two games. All to play for. I'm quietly confident we can make top four, but will no doubt be the usual nervous mess game time Sunday and Sunday week.

Wouldn't it be nice to, just once, come out and put a battling team to the sword from the get go like a top 4 aspirant should. Like Sydney did to Freo last week.

Why can't we do that Dimma? Why can't we smash a team by 10 goals? I just don't get that statement from a senior AFL coach. It's rubbish.

Just smash them Tigers!!!

 

[jb03]

If we win both and GWS lose today, we will finish top 3 and play GWS or Cats. Would give us a good chance of winning against either.

 

[Baron Samedi]

If we win both and GWS lose today, we will finish top 3 and play GWS or Cats. Would give us a good chance of winning against either.

at the G anything is possible really.

 

[AngryAnt]

Wouldn't it be nice to, just once, come out and put a battling team to the sword from the get go like a top 4 aspirant should. Like Sydney did to Freo last week.

Why can't we do that Dimma? Why can't we smash a team by 10 goals? I just don't get that statement from a senior AFL coach. It's rubbish.

It's a fair question Ridley Walker. When we dominate games in terms of inside fifties, we tend to squander this with poor shots at goal. More realistically though our forward line is very immature - we win games through sheer hardness at the ball and a rock solid defence. We don't really have the makings of a side that will kick a big score, this year anyway.

Of course I'll get howled down as an apologist for saying this but stats don't lie.

 

[Ridley]

It's a fair question Ridley Walker. When we dominate games in terms of inside fifties, we tend to squander this with poor shots at goal. More realistically though our forward line is very immature - we win games through sheer hardness at the ball and a rock solid defence. We don't really have the makings of a side that will kick a big score, this year anyway.

Of course I'll get howled down as an apologist for saying this but stats don't lie.

Apologist.

Anyway I know it's a simplistic view but if we could ever bloody kick straight in front of goals we would have won a few games by 10 goals plus. Our goal kicking is putrid.

The other points you make are reasonable but we do get enough of the ball inside 50 to score more; we just tend to stuff up and muck around with it more than we should.

Anyway it's too late for % this year; we've missed that boat. Just have to win the last 2 games. It would be nice to do it without the usual Richmond heart attack material though.

 

[AngryAnt]

Apologist.

Anyway I know it's a simplistic view but if we could ever bloody kick straight in front of goals we would have won a few games by 10 goals plus. Our goal kicking is putrid.

The other points you make are reasonable but we do get enough of the ball inside 50 to score more; we just tend to stuff up and muck around with it more than we should.

Anyway it's too late for % this year; we've missed that boat. Just have to win the last 2 games. It would be nice to do it without the usual Richmond heart attack material though.

Yeah. I've accepted that heart attacks are par for the course, even in a good year. And if we kicked straight we would have won a few more close games and be top of the ladder, and had a healthy percentage to boot! It is what it is though... enjoy the ride!

 

[Baloo]

It would be nice to do it without the usual Richmond heart attack material though.

Where's the fun in that ?

 

[Ridley]

Where's the fun in that ?

True. I guess it's one of things that separates us from Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney supporters etc. We don't do winning easy.

 

[toby64]

old bernie may need more than five assistants to prop him up in the box.

He needs more than 4 players to prop up the team on the field