Unofficial Preview Richmond v Melbourne Casey Fields Saturday 4th March 4.10pm

[Grrr]

Is it though?

Short has been part of far more effective defensive set-up's while Rioli's move to the backline has coincided with our defence dropping off a cliff. Eye test certainly suggest what your saying is true, but the team defence appears to be far worse.

The other part of this is maybe not one can play Position A) the best - but which one can play their secondary position the best and does that position notify a clear flaw in our system.

I don't think Short as a FWD provides anything - he is best down fwd when he is running up from HB and feeding off for a long bomb set up etc. Short possibly could become a wing which would be useful, but still not sure he can be elite. Short did great in the middle, but with Graham, Taranto, Hopper, Prestia, Cotchin around he is likely only needed to rotate along with Dusty Bolton, Baker, Sonsie etc

With Georgie & Aarts gone - we crazily now lack speed in our fwd line. Dan Rioli does fit that bill, has been proven in that role. I know i spruicked this all last year to groans - but it makes more sense this year than even last. I have A LOT of faith in Dan. I am not willing to think of him as an average fwd due to his previous form -as for several years before that, he was excellent there. I also think that fwd line structure was tired and redundant. I also think his trials and tribulations and his dedication to the move down back has made him mature tenfold. Where once he was allowed to be the wide eyed young buck in the fwd line, now he would be the leader of that group of MRJ, Cumberland & Bolton.

When Rioli;'s fwd performance dropped, he was partnering with the likes of Georgie, Aarts, Parker, Caddy. All these guys are now gone. ITs a completely new structure & group.

A fwd line set up of D.Rioli, Bolton, MRJ, Dusty, Cumberland - playing around twin towers Jack & Tom seems like a clearly more balanced attacked of marking, speed and pressure

How can you say we are slow up front with Cumberland who is very quick, Bolton, MRJ, Dusty, etc. Young Clarke is looking lively as well.

Rioli was brilliant last year, odd call to move him especially as there was a lot of holler on here when he was playing forward to drop him.

Short will have to battle for a spot. He was quite good last season as a mid, especially given he hasn't played there, so he deserves to be persevered with there for a bit longer than a couple of practice matches. He was found a bit short come finals last year, but deserves another chance, especially with good distributing mids to give him the ball.

 

[Jack 17]

If Cotchin is suspended so too should be Petty. Just as bad (and just as little force too).

 

[Burning bright]

Wasn’t young on Brown for 90% of the game?
Thought he held up really well

Young showed he had some promise as a backman not saying he is a dud he obtained good experience just faced top end tall talent which will bother many established backlines.

Shemans going back to the Stynes and Strawberry days

.

 

[prodigy]

One thing I forgot to mention in my review was how poor Short was.
I have genuine concerns pertaining to his form and where he fits in now.
Yes, best and fairest winner, has runs on the board, but poor form can only be tolerated for so long.

 

[tunksy]

One thing I forgot to mention in my review was how poor Short was.
I have genuine concerns pertaining to his form and where he fits in now.
Yes, best and fairest winner, has runs on the board, but poor form can only be tolerated for so long.

his only spot is half back. but how many half back flankers can we play?

would've been good value as part of the taranto hopper trades.

 

[_RT_]

Tigers had gastro

 

[RJK Tiger]

How can you say we are slow up front with Cumberland who is very quick, Bolton, MRJ, Dusty, etc. Young Clarke is looking lively as well.

Rioli was brilliant last year, odd call to move him especially as there was a lot of holler on here when he was playing forward to drop him.

Short will have to battle for a spot. He was quite good last season as a mid, especially given he hasn't played there, so he deserves to be persevered with there for a bit longer than a couple of practice matches. He was found a bit short come finals last year, but deserves another chance, especially with good distributing mids to give him the ball.

Our forward line looked slow & we barely provided any contest to them running the ball out. Last year i thought we looked poor against the transition also.

Dusty isnt that quick, especially these days. Clarke looks lively, but he is way too young and raw to count on. MRJ is lightning. Bolton is fast for sure - but he is also too good to not be rotated further up the ground when required too.

The idea Short has to "battle for his spot" shows how warped it is. I 100% believe that if Short had continued to play down back last year instead of moving into the middle, we was well on his way to AA honors. This is a guy who won the B&f in a historical GF year playing that role. He is at his peak. If we have him fighting for a spot then our balance is out of whack

 

[Drunken Wookie]

Clearly the win was not on Hardwicks agenda as he played Young in a key back roll against this years hardest transitional match up of the Grundy Gawn Forward/Ruck game plan. The kid has not played an AFL game and resulted in at least half a dozen shots on goals but Dimma left him in the role.

Melbourne has exposed probably their near best game style and rotations to us we have delivered them virtually nothing but the appending headache of Samson Ryan.

When we extracted the digit in the third quarter we gobbled up half their lead and when we introduced the run and marking power of Samson in the fourth they were at 6's and 7's. If he kicked straight then we are only a few goals behind in a game the shemans dominated.

What I did notice was the physical knocks on Melbourne's lighter running brigade they quickly wanted to get out of that mode of play reminiscent to last year first half when we cranked it up on the physical that time the umpires came screaming in with their defensive whistles.

Miller Tarrant will provide a significant more physical pressure on tall forwards.

The other bug bear is that Gawn is a very static and vertical forward if he can stand then step into the mark with his reach he is dominant, Noah Balta putting his knee into the small of his back took Gawn out for a good part of the quarter this is the achilles heal of tall marking rucks that love to stand and dominate the fall of the ball.


I hope we took note.


.

Agree with everything especially the call on Gawn. He's a bloke that just sits under the ball and clunks marks while oppo fists are coming in near his elbows.
Players need to be instructed to, as you said, use these opportunities to run in and get that extra height to spoil but also drive the knee through him. You take Gawns influence out of that match and it was a pretty even contest.

 

[LTT]

Miller would have been much better equipped to defend Gawn/Grundy when they wandered forward too.

He offers quite a bit with his kicking too, but I think the question mark is can he be a marking threat up forward himself?

Millers non selection was interesting for several reasons. Firstly it allowed the selectors to compare Soldo and Nank up against the best really tall ruckman. Second it left Jack and Tom as the only tall forwards against a really good defence Thirdly it meant that there was no backup for Tyler Young I suspect that Richmond saw the game as nothing more than a chance to assess a few things It will be interesting to see the results

 

[Groupie_]

If Cotching is suspended so too should be Petty. Just as bad (and just as little force too). View attachment 1622704

worse

the head is sacrosanct

 

[Grrr]

Our forward line looked slow & we barely provided any contest to them running the ball out. Last year i thought we looked poor against the transition also.

Dusty isnt that quick, especially these days. Clarke looks lively, but he is way too young and raw to count on. MRJ is lightning. Bolton is fast for sure - but he is also too good to not be rotated further up the ground when required too.

The idea Short has to "battle for his spot" shows how warped it is. I 100% believe that if Short had continued to play down back last year instead of moving into the middle, we was well on his way to AA honors. This is a guy who won the B&f in a historical GF year playing that role. He is at his peak. If we have him fighting for a spot then our balance is out of whack

Not really fighting for a spot, I think that he is best 22, more fighting for position.

I thought Dan Rioli's '22 year was better than Short's 2020 year. Rioli got 59 votes (one vote behind Lynch), Short 53 votes so there is not much in it. But Rioli is more creative in my eyes. Fighting more with Baker right now, but he was so good on the weekend he is going nowhere short term.

I thought Short was good last year in the middle and will get better logically both because he has played and trained there and because the players around him will hopefully get the ball out to him better where he can utilise his long leg. But that might not mean starting in the middle but from the bench. All mids play roughly the same game time, so that shouldn't matter.

Short could also be part of the wing, back flank rotations, again whether he might replace MacIntosh or Pickett remains to be seen, but again in regard to starting 18 it doesn't really matter.

We might have looked a little slow on the weekend, Melbourne are a very quick defending/rebounding side. But it was a practice match so nobody other than the kids are really going hard. If Nank or Soldo went forward last weekend, that makes us even slower and will not be part of the main season, that lesson should have been learned last year. The stand rule has made that rebounding even easier, so that might have been worked on over summer.

 

[YeOldTiger]

um! think covid might have a bit 2 do with this. i mean, the obsession some have with the stand rule and laying the blame for our poor performances on that issue is frankly embarrassing

Seriously mate if you can't see that this is the most bullshit rule in 50 years you need glasses. How are you enjoying the netball these days ? FMD

 

[YeOldTiger]

The FWD line wont work IMO

A players peak age is considered 27

Lifecycle of an AFL player’s career

Stages of an AFL player’s career and a first model for assessing player effectiveness across multiple seasons

towardsdatascience.com

Riewoldt - 34
Cotchin - (almost) 33
Dusty - 31
Lynch - 30
Bolton - 24
MRJ - 20
Cumberland - 21


Only Bolton is close to being at his peak, and even still he might be too soon, especially considering his inconsistency and at times, immaturity. For the rest, we are either too old or too young. Very hard to see how this FWD line will mesh.

I said it a lot last year, but i think these team has too many holes in it in regards to player either being too old, or too young. If we say that the peak age of a player ranges from 25 to 28, 29 - We only have the below players in that range

Vlaustin
Taranto
Baker
Rioli
Short
Soldo
Graham
KMac
Nank
Hopper
Presita

Of that listI think its safe to say. Nank & Prestia are so war-torn that we all accept they are certainly not at their peak. Soldo, Graham, KMac are questionably best 22 players. Taranto & Hopper both are obviously at their first year at the club (Prestia & Caddy proved this is possible, but it was very memorable and unusual)... meaning only defenders (sometimes midfielders) Rioli, Vlaustin, Baker & Short truely fit a "peak" criteria when considering whats required to get the ultimate success

To compare this to 2017 Richmond

Grimes 26
Prestia 25
Martin 26
Riewoldt 29
Cotchin 28
Edwards 29
Astbury 27
Houli 29
Rance 28
Caddy 25
Lambert 26
Griffiths 26
Miles 26
Lloyd 28
Conca 25
Broad 25


Add to that Vlaustin, B.Ellis, Townsend & KMac were all 24 & turned 25 during the season.

Our 2017 team felt like it "flew" up to the flag, but realistically we had several Hall of Famers in their peak with all the young guys only required to play "roles" ( Castagna, Butler, Rioli etc ).

.... the list balance just doesn't work for me.

Dude, go and do the same exercise with Geelong's group from last year and then get back to me. They won every final by more that ten goals and the grand final by 15 goals. They regularly fielded the oldest teams in the history of the game.

The key with a squad like ours that includes a bunch of hungry, younger talented guys is to nurse the senior players through.

Never, NEVER write off a champion.

 

[Dinith]

Watched bits and pieces and felt a bit bored by it all. Rose tinted glasses on and looked at the two team line ups and saw a settled line up in Melbourne, and a Richmond side with close to half the side not having played together much at all. Saw really nice positives in young players and feel reasonably confident Dimma will get this machine purring by big boy month.

Now I'm hard.

 

[Maurice Mitchell]

Agree with everything especially the call on Gawn. He's a bloke that just sits under the ball and clunks marks while oppo fists are coming in near his elbows.
Players need to be instructed to, as you said, use these opportunities to run in and get that extra height to spoil but also drive the knee through him. You take Gawns influence out of that match and it was a pretty even contest.

Normally I’d say that one bloke doesn’t make that much difference but in the first half I reckon Gawn was responsible for all of their lead. We may have been deliberately playing into his hands. My feeling is that was the case but regardless, he dominated us like I haven’t seen before.

Oh, well, apart from Neale in the last game. Short memory.

 

[domin8]

If Cotchin is suspended so too should be Petty. Just as bad (and just as little force too). View attachment 1622704

TC financial sanction. Off to the main board grab the popcorn

 

[Muddiemoose]

TC financial sanction. Off to the main board grab the popcorn

Time to get Teflon Cotch trending

 

[guruisatiger]

basil

Fawlty?

 

[Triggering Tiger]

Time to get Teflon Cotch trending

We call him #colemancotch nowadays!

 

[The Mighty]

Fawlty?