HARDWICK - I feel sorry for him

[Hokuto no Roo]

Maybe on another thought, Richmond and NM should merge. Your troop number and our culture and Brand name. Tiger-Roo hybrid will then market itself into China and Japan. Tiger brand is good in china but kangaroo more evident of Aus connection. Japanese abs loves Aus. I was asked about how to catch croc when i told i am australian, even though i am asian.

 

[Sigh RolleyEyes]

I feel sorry for the Tigers' faithful. You know that a Tigers' supporter is fair dinkum because there has been no bandwagon to join for such a long time. Contrast this to the thousands of fair weather Swans 'supporters' of 4-5 years ago or Bigfooty Hawthflogs with a join date of roughly Oct 2008.

 

[Sigh RolleyEyes]

Maybe on another thought, Richmond and NM should merge. Your troop number and our culture and Brand name. Tiger-Roo hybrid will then market itself into China and Japan. Tiger brand is good in china but kangaroo more evident of Aus connection. Japanese abs loves Aus. I was asked about how to catch croc when i told i am australian, even though i am asian.

that's an entertaining post. thank you for making it. the only thing stopping us from winning our 5th premiership is the lack of troop number.

 

[Pessimistic]

A lot has been made of the Hawks bottom out and rebuild but the first round draftees which were important all came in the first batch - Buddy Roughy an Lewis - who came at the end of schwabs tenure.

Those and other players all got plenty of game time from theat day on. This seems to be more of a factor in the resurgence than first round picks in the two subsequent low finishes. In fact the the hawks went highly speculative in the next twodrafts and it wasnt altogether successful.

So thats it. The gametime the young tigers will get this year may be a lot more important than the picks which result

 

[RizzoTheRat]

I think he did the right thing given the compromised draft.

I do feel sorry for him, particularly with having to suspend players for behaviour. Talk about insult to injury.

 

[Ghost of Punt Road]

Given the four suspensions, and an already very inexperienced team, I think most of the Richmond team on Sunday will be driven to the ground by their mums.

 

[Dazb86]

I think Hardwick has gone about things the right way. The lack of senior players is really telling though. I remember a while back when the hawks/dogs/tigers were rebuilding (tambling/franklin draft) the difference between the teams was the hawks and dogs had reasonable players between the 50-100 game mark that would go on to become the core groups of the sides. Richmond didn't have that luxury.

Tigers need to fix their recruiting asap. Not so much with the top picks but they fail miserably with most of their later picks/rookie picks. I think they should go in with the approach of taking kids with earlier picks this year and take some vfl talent with great skills because that is what they are lacking.

 

[smasha]

I completely disagree with what Hardwick did during Richmond's trade period. Instead of going for unproven players (especially extremely late in the draft) he should have signed guys like Russel Robertson and Luke Ablett. Neither player would set the world on fire but both were proven AFL players.

I'm willing to bet Robertson and Ablett would have offered a lot more on the field than probably a dozen players on Richmond's list.

WTF?

That would've killed the club and set it back another 10 years.

 

[smasha]

Richmond need a bit of stability and bringing in Robertson and Ablett would have helped. Both of them would have cost Richmond absolutely nothing and both of them would have been in Richmond's best 22 (i have no doubt about that).

Youth isn't always the answer, sometimes experiance and a proven record is a better way to go about rebuilding a club.

Yeah but to get those sort of players,you need a list that is finals bound already.

Richmond are growing the kids together so they are all on the same page which means it will take time but in the long run will be better for the club.

I reckon we need to look into the WAFL,SANFL VFL and pick up some 22-23 year olds.

 

[Edward Teach]

I completely disagree with what Hardwick did during Richmond's trade period. Instead of going for unproven players (especially extremely late in the draft) he should have signed guys like Russel Robertson and Luke Ablett. Neither player would set the world on fire but both were proven AFL players.

I'm willing to bet Robertson and Ablett would have offered a lot more on the field than probably a dozen players on Richmond's list.

Totally agree.

The youth policy almost always leads to seasons of misery at the bottom of the ladder. Most of the kids will not make it anyway! There is no quality to mentor the kids and losing crushes spirits and makes players move on to where there is a winning vibe.

There are so many examples of this. Numerous SANFL teams have gone from bottom to almost top in a season or two after ditching the illogical 'youth' policy and recruiting good players in their mid to late 20's from rival clubs.

Richmond should have taken a look at the players Brisbane did. Voss is spot on in his recruiting style. You need a blend of players with proven skills and killer instinct.

 

[Magpies696]

I think Hardwick should put the boots back on himself

 

[Barnzy]

Obviously DH loves a challenge and there's no greater challenge than trying to get the Richmond FC back on track. If he does indeed succeed no doubt he will be held in very high esteem by the football world given so many have tried and failed in the past.

It will be a long rocky road but so far so good. I love what he did with the list, cutting deeply and drafting a bunch of kids and that will no doubt continue at the end of year. Also like his team selections giving the kids a lot of gametime. I also don't think it's as dire as some suggest. There's a lot of good prospects there such as Cotchin, Martin, Vickery, Post, Rance, Riewoldt, Morton, Connors, etc and also some more experienced players who will be around for awhile in Deledio, Tambling, Foley, Thursfield and co. You can build a team around that, DH just needs to continue to cut those who can not take us forward and add to what we already have.

We have to take 2 steps back to go forward (given we cut Bowden, Richo, Brown, etc last year) so people need to be patient. He's going about it the right way and he knows what he's doing given he was at Hawthorn for their rebuild. Certainly a much different direction to Wallace who was more a fan of shortcuts and short-term fixes and that hurt the club long-term.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I don't thing Wallace and miller have really received the criticism they deserve.

Tiger supporters are excused for abusing them in the street

 

[Wet Biscuit]

I think Hardwick has gone about things the right way. The lack of senior players is really telling though. I remember a while back when the hawks/dogs/tigers were rebuilding (tambling/franklin draft) the difference between the teams was the hawks and dogs had reasonable players between the 50-100 game mark that would go on to become the core groups of the sides. Richmond didn't have that luxury.

Tigers need to fix their recruiting asap. Not so much with the top picks but they fail miserably with most of their later picks/rookie picks. I think they should go in with the approach of taking kids with earlier picks this year and take some vfl talent with great skills because that is what they are lacking.

Mate we've been great with our later/rookie picks. If anything it's the earlier picks that we have been subpar in.