Exciting Times

[theDJR]

I’m not unhappy with a guy who regularly kicks 3 or 4 goals in a quarter… some fantastic kicks tonight.

[wimmera1]

But to get back to exciting times, McKenna has undeniably come forward in leaps and bounds this year and is going to be a very exciting player for us.
Already is, but…gosh, I’m looking forward to seeing him play next year.

[Crazy_Bomber]

But to get back to exciting times, McKenna has undeniably come forward in leaps and bounds this year and is going to be a very exciting player for us.
Already is, but…gosh, I’m looking forward to seeing him play next year.

And what annoys me is there should have been another 3-6 kids that could have been in the same situation.

[wimmera1]

But to get back to exciting times, McKenna has undeniably come forward in leaps and bounds this year and is going to be a very exciting player for us.
Already is, but…gosh, I’m looking forward to seeing him play next year.

And what annoys me is there should have been another 3-6 kids that could have been in the same situation.

Well, yeah…it’s been frustrating.
There have been missed opportunities. And that goes to calls of a wasted year.
It’s difficult to get your head around…so much of the thinking this year.
I do wonder if the coaching staff would have liked to have another go at the last twelve weeks…

[Crazy_Bomber]

But to get back to exciting times, McKenna has undeniably come forward in leaps and bounds this year and is going to be a very exciting player for us.
Already is, but…gosh, I’m looking forward to seeing him play next year.

And what annoys me is there should have been another 3-6 kids that could have been in the same situation.

Well, yeah…it’s been frustrating.
There have been missed opportunities. And that goes to calls of a wasted year.
It’s difficult to get your head around…so much of the thinking this year.
I do wonder if the coaching staff would have liked to have another go at the last twelve weeks…

I think it’s a wasted year. Individually some great performances sure, Daniher and our forwardline look dangerous, but when you look at the sheer amount of wasted development it can’t be seen as anything but. Basically we’ll be spending next year doing what we should have been doing this year, playing kids in place of the underperforming oldies. And the thing that worries me is I feel that’s only because most of them will retire, and not down to any logical decision making by the club.

I was one of the few that didn’t want Kelly this year, he’s been a great servant but once again him with Jobe, Howlett, Myers, Goddard, Baguley, Stanton, Hocking etc have no replacements that have actually played AFL. So when they leave we’ll be playing kids trying to plug holes until we can learn about if they can make it. But we should have done that this year. McKenna is just an example of what could have become of Mutch, Begley, Francis, Redman, Long etc. And yes I’d have rathered us play Francis then Howlett. Francis offers more and that’s saying something.

Next year we won’t have the easy draw, they’ll be more interstate trips, we’ll have the same issues with Anzac Day with a short break (so do we expect to lose the 2 after that again?) and a raft of holes in the midfield that we’ll suddenly need to fill with kids we could have given experience to this year. I have hope for our future but with our age group and draw, this year is a failure. Daniher, Hooker, Fantasia, Tippa, Hurley & McKenna probably exempt in that.

[Ants]

I think only one player has come back from suspension to his previous form, and that’s Hurley.
You could argue Hooker. I would not.

Four years is a lot of good football to look forward to.
I’m bullish about him.

Hurley has been a shadow of himself as a one-on-one defender.

[Ants]

…
Even with a Brownlow winner in 2013/14 and Heppell in better form than he is now, and with Myers in better form than he is now and Goddard in better form we were STILL at best probably a bottom 8 midfield. That goes to show just how dire our midfield is now, we’re playing those same players in the twilight of their careers hoping they can one day reach the mediocre heights of 3/4 years past.
…

I just wanted to challenge this. It seems in recent times there is a Blitz tendency to write off the performance of the 2012 and 2013 teams. This is something I wrote elsewhere:

So why were the 2012/13 teams so successful for the early parts of the seasons? In 2012 we were 11:4, in 2013 we were 13:3. Talent just doesn’t appear/disappear, and the list manager has nothing to do with fitness, team morale or keeping the players in the zone. Those two stretches indicate to me we had the talent to push top 4, and that is what Dodoro’s job was to provide.

So I ask again, how did the team do that? It certainly wasn’t the forward line. Crameri won the goal kicking both years with 32 and 30 goals. I don’t know how to pull out the stats for only the rounds we were ‘up’, but on I50 count for the whole season we were fourth in 2013 and third in 2012. Unless our backline was the best backline that ever backlined, the midfield must have been doing a lot right that even with the fall off at the end of the season, we finished top 4 for I50 both years.

I don’t think a bottom 8 midfield could have been 3rd and 4th for I50s. Our bigger problem was injuries and fitness, which is why we through three (four?) fitness regimes in a handful of years.

So I really don’t think the 2012 and 2013 midfields were as bad as is being made out.

[OOORAZIOOO]

Predictions for 2017

Finals depend on injuries. If we have a good run we should go close. I was looking at our draw today, it's fkn easy

This thread is a good read about now.

Some ■■■■■■ good predictions (and some shockers).
The board feels a whole lot less toxic back then than it does right now too.

[langford]

But even in '12 and '13 our midfield couldn’t run the other way. It’s the same ■■■■ as always.

Dodoro can’t pick good mids. He gets the obvious ones Zaka, Dyson, McGrath, Parish, Myers… 1st round draft picks. But struggles from 2nd round onwards. We need a midfield specialist recruiter on the team.

[Laverde2Langford]

Lol at the doomsayers in this thread.

Glad I’m not you.

Team didn’t give up. Is some midfielders short.

And those who whine about our midfield rotations and criticise the coaches…we play our best contested ball winners in the contest. They just are overmatched. I don’t know who else you think can immediately address that. It’s just legit whinging.

I for one was proud of our efforts today against a more mature, bigger, stronger and talented team. Our best days are ahead. Go cry somewhere else because your negativity is repetitive & boring not to mention misdirected.

[Paul_Peos]

But even in '12 and '13 our midfield couldn’t run the other way. It’s the same ■■■■ as always.

I don’t think that’s entirely true, and without being too silly about it, there was a good 9 week period in 2012 where our midfield ran every single way.

But Ants is right, our 2012-13 midfield was actually pretty decent. Jobe was in career best form (which is insane form), Stanton was still up and about, Hocking was a pretty decent tagger, Zaharakis had a good 2013, Heppell was coming through… It was slow, but rarely beaten like it has been many times this year.

Dodoro can’t pick good mids. He gets the obvious ones Zaka, Dyson, McGrath, Parish, Myers… 1st round draft picks. But struggles from 2nd round onwards. We need a midfield specialist recruiter on the team.

Our two best midfielders as of right now, were both second rounders.

I reckon the issue is pure numbers. We just haven’t recruited enough midfielders. We did, for a little bit, but then we stopped again.

It’s also been a very long time since we’ve plucked a midfielder from a late / rookie pick. Come to think of it, have we had any rookie midfielders make any impact since, well, Howlett?

[Laverde2Langford]

It’s the fkn knights era all over again. A heap of quick exciting players mixed with a group of old, cooked mids who can’t run the other way. This year has been a step backwards.

That’s the real lol WOB. A bloke makes some optimistic points about our direction which to many are legit. You “LOL” them, which is miserably lame, unsophisticated and then state this???

You are in dire need of perspective. Kudos to OP.

*Expect some rant about history, knights era etc without actually addressing the fact our backline is generally very good under immense pressure every week and our fwd line is nearly league best once it’s inside 50.

• Our midfield is battling, it’s not structural, it’s personnel, we don’t have them…yet. If this is your one evidence of backwards then whatevs, you have provided no interesting insight.

[RockyIV]

Forwardline is as exciting as it’s been since the Lloyd/Lucas heyday thats for sure.

[The_5th_Daniher]

Agree.
In fact most of the time we play exciting footy.

[Henry_s_Angry_Pills]

Ditto bird though he had his own age issues, still he’d be offering more over the next fortnight.

Every time I see Bird in the VFL it makes sense why he hasn’t played AFL. He is really no better than Howlett. He’s not the answer.

[Henry_s_Angry_Pills]

I think we need to pull off a trade mirical to win one within the next 5 years or draft incredibly well too win one within the decade.

I don’t know this is the case

I think we’re 4 good players away. One inside mid ball winner (Jobe), 2 generic mids and 1 winger/outside mid. All 4 need at least reasonable footskills and at least reasonable defensively. And quite possibly some of those players are already on the list.

4 players can be found within a year or two provided they’re prepared to give chances to kids - which is the stumbling block at the moment.

Certainly won’t find the guys we need whilst we continue to go to Howlett and Myers.

[Heffsgirl]

Lots to like. I pray they fix obvious deficiencies.

[frankston_bomber2005]

Is this a Richmond forum ? Fark me.

[Henry_s_Angry_Pills]

You get your roots from footy forums?

[Paul_Peos]

Ditto bird though he had his own age issues, still he’d be offering more over the next fortnight.

Every time I see Bird in the VFL it makes sense why he hasn’t played AFL. He is really no better than Howlett. He’s not the answer.

I agree he’s no saviour, but he’s clearly better than Howlett.