Looking at the team...(These 2 weeks)

[deliberate!!]

Don't you just hate it when posters don't get the meaning of a thread. As soon as someone mentions life without Richo out come all the 'fans' to tell you how stupid you are for suggesting such a thing.

The day Richo announces he is retiring HelpLine better have an few thousand extra staff rostered on to deal with the depression that will inevitably swamp those of you who think Richmond, without Richo playing, is stuffed.

Some of you need to take of the 'Richo' goggles and look at the big picture. We have seen the forward line function rather well this season since Richo moved away from it. The last 2 weeks without Richo playing we have won 2 from 2 and for the record the last time we won 2 straight without Richo in the side was Rounds 7-8 2002.

The way I see it, we don't need Richo in the side to be a chance of winning games like we used to. To put it another way, with Richo missing last week I felt we were just as likely to win against the Bombers as we would have been with Richo playing. When was the last time anyone believed that? My guess is sometime around 1995.

Nice post RT.
The last 2 weeks have shown that while Richo is a walk up start and the first guy you would pencil into the side, Richo now has to fit INTO this side. In the past because of Richo's dominance, the side was moulded AROUNDED Richo.

Terry Wallace knew that to further the entire side, Richo had to have less control over the forward line. Wallace asked him if he would play somewhere else and as a credit to Richo, Richo jumped at it. The rest is history.

Whether or not Richo plays another 1 or 2 years we now have the early foundation of a multi-prong attack. Richo could retire tomorrow (of his choice), and we are already prepared for life after Richo. We have never been in this position before.

And as RT said, prepare as if Richo's gone now, eventhough he's still playing, and you won't have your heart broken like a schoolboy who's Mum has just ripped his favourite player's poster off his wall.