Les Misérable

In years past we lost against good teams and wondered if the players were putting in. In 2014 they’re putting in and losing.

Winning was always off the table today, you don’t find form against teams like Hawthorn. If you get lucky, you catch them when you are up and they are down. Today they were up and we were disorganised and ripe for the picking.

Our completely random 10 day break, to be followed by a normal week off and then a bye will settle the most bizarrely scheduled opening seven matches that you could imagine. At the end of which we’ll be 2 and 5, out of form, lacking reinforcements and with a lot more questions than we started with. After a loss to the best team in the competition is a bad time to do this, but at first glance the blokes on the list that I’ve got questions over for 2015 is into double figures.

As eloquently pointed out by Tigerland Tone:

"We have 40 million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse" - Rudyard Kipling, @TigerlandTone signing off. #gotiges
— Richmond (@Richmond_FC) April 27, 2014

We’ve bet the farm on building depth and it looks like we’ll have to hand the farm back to the bank.

We desperately need Rance and Deledio back, more desperately than we could have imagined when they were out there. I may be clutching at straws but I think we will be five goals better off just through their inclusion against Geelong.

Losing to Hawthorn is nothing to be ashamed of and the last two wins were farcical anomalies that have now been corrected.

No matter who the opposition was, there still needs to be serious questions asked internally about why the playing group and game plan have regressed so much. Our drafting strategy last year, which is now entirely questionable, suggests that the football department expected continued improvement of the existing 22. But of the guys who regularly played last year, which has improved over summer? Vlastuin and Ellis have but they are young enough for that to be put down to natural improvement. Astbury, Petterd and Griffiths have shown improvement and taken the most of their opportunity. Many have stagnated. Edwards and Martin are unquestionably worse and Chaplin looks lost without Rance to handball it to.

The comparison to Melbourne last night does not reflect well. The Dees have a dud list (it will get better), Watts aside they are cracking in, working towards the right plan. Richmond has an OK list that is also cracking in but I’m not sure what plan they are trying to see through. Without using profanity, it’s impossible to compose a sentence that explains Richmond’s plan. It’s not offensive, it’s not defensive, it’s not even like that 4-4-2 setting that your boring friends used to play on FIFA. It’s absolutely nowhere.

Which all brings us to the elephant in the room, Hardwick. With gems like this one, it’s hard to believe he understands the dire situation that will be upon us if structural changes aren’t made. Nobody should be calling for his head because though he got us into this current mess, given the progress the list has made under him, he deserves the opportunity to get us out of it.

At the actual game, it started unraveling when Vlastuin tried to take the glory mark when a simple punch would have sufficed, Rioli crumbed and they scored the first goal inside the first minute. It shouldn’t have surprised anyone but their hands and transition was light years ahead of us, they absolutely smashed us in disposals early and would have blown us out of the contest even earlier had they have capitalised on the scoreboard.

If not for Jack Riewoldt this would have even been more ugly. Jack is the ultimate example of where media narrative doesn’t match up with reality. He was truly gallant today, not brilliant in the usual full forward way, but in the tenacity, effort and, dare I say it, leadership way. I’ll chuck it in if anyone else agrees that Chaplin is a better on-field leader and if things really go pear shaped before the end of the year they should look at moving Riewoldt into one of those dreaded co-captaincy routines.

The second quarter was marginally better because we managed to control the ball but like Melbourne (sigh), we spent so much energy getting the ball to the half forward flank that it was soul destroying when the turnover came and they went screeching down the other end to score a goal without the ball touching the ground.

A few lingering doubts began to move into reality through the first half – we’ve only got a handful of blokes who can stick a tackle and though we are loaded with players who can go the journey from 50 nobody ever does it, instead opting for a high risk pass to a leading forward in the pocket. And because we normally move the ball at glacier speed, you can be assured there will be at least 45 defenders guarding that space.

Incredibly, the third quarter kicked off just as the first two – with Hawthorn scoring within seconds and then it completely went to bobbins as they kicked another one before we’d even touched registered a possession. Before long the Talking Tigers lads and my man Ricky Petterd forgot that you don’t do anything risky around Cyril Rioli when Bruce is commentating and that was all she wrote.

A savage quarter was nearly salvaged by an incredible Astbury chase on Hill which ended up being a goal to them, probably Rioli, and pretty much summed the whole day up in one passage of play.

The fourth quarter was junk time and Dusty’s sudden springing to life should be considered accordingly:

Dustin Martin's disposals by quarter: 3, 2, 3, 13. #padthemstats #AFLTigersHawks
— Ethan (@ethan_meldrum) April 27, 2014

On Dusty, he could learn a bit about getting to the bloke who set the goal up for you rather than soaking in all the attention yourself. If the VFL is good enough for Vickery, it’s absolutely good enough for Martin after another stinker. $500k a year for easy junk time possessions.

There were a few positives - Ellis got his hands on the ball and we look a much better team when he does, Grigg put his hand up and did the hard yards during the second quarter to settle the ship, McDonough showed enough to be inexplicably dropped again, Astbury took another scalp, Jackson is finding form as he does fitness and we managed to scrape together enough blokes to fly the flag after Gibson caved in the side of Conca’s scull.

And Cotchin also wont get any Brownlow votes which is a surprise positive because I can’t hack the thought of us bombing the year all together and him winning a Brownlow Watson* and Ablett style because we don’t have anyone else worth a crumpet in the midfield.

So it’s back to the drawing board, which we’ve been back to so often that it may as well just be the plan.

And Christ I hope we see Lennon next week.

Votes

5: Brandon Ellis

4: Jack Riewoldt

3: David Astbury

2: Shaun Grigg

1: Daniel Jackson

Leaderboards

The Benny

13: Trent Cotchin and David Astbury

11: Jack Riewoldt

9: Ricky Petterd

7: Shaun Hampson and Brandon Ellis

5: Steven Morris

4: Matt Thomas and Sam Lloyd

3: Ty Vickery and Reece Conca

2: Brett Deledio, Shaun Grigg, Daniel Jackson and Nick Vlastuin

1: Ben Griffiths, Orren Stephenson and Dustin Martin

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

9: Ricky Petterd

7: Shaun Hampson

4: Matt Thomas

2: Shaun Grigg

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

2: Shaun Grigg

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

4: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Championship belt

Incumbent	Winner	Streak	Wins
NA	Cotchin	1	1
Cotchin	Astbury	1	1
Astbury	Riewoldt	1	1
Riewoldt	Astbury	1	2
Astbury	Petterd	1	1
Petterd	Ellis	1	1

Something that might make you cheer up isthis video I stumbled across on YouTube of David Cloke’s last game back in the glory days of the early 90’s.