Fellow richmond supporters, I feel there has been a change with this club. A change in mentality and expectations among both the club, and supporters.
Being 23, the most success I've seen was us getting our pants pulled down by Essendon, then scraping a victory against carlton in a semi final (which i thoroughly enjoyed, don't get me wrong)
Since 2001 it has always felt like the team is just not good enough and doesnt want it bad enough. Even during 2005 and 2008 when we showed signs we may be improving, it felt like we always needed everything to go our way to win games, and that we would hope the opposition may have an off day so that we could steal a win. I felt like that mentality of "hope we play well" changed after the Rd 1 2009 thumping at the hands of carlton to "i hope we dont get beaten to badly.."
That mindset is long gone now, i felt it begining to change last year, and i feel the losses at start of this have completely stripped us of "i hope we play well" to expecting that we will play our best, and if we do play our best, we will win.
I was bitterly disspointed after the loss to carlton in Rd 1, as i expected better in that last quater. The 6 minutes it took collingwood to beat us in the 3rd quater was also bitterly dissapointing, as I expected better. A feeling that i was not use to in the past, and i would have just gone with "oh well at least we were ok"
The geelong loss it cut deep as i thought we had their measure, but couldnt go hard enough for 4 quaters.
The loss to west coast is the game that i feel started the change, as after that game the expectation of doing better was amplified with the feeling of "I've had enough of **** losing!!" I can't help but feel it was the same among the players, as demonstrated by Newman launching his mouth gard across Etihad's turf.
I knew we would beat port adelaide the next week, enough was enough. In fact, after that game i felt something that was very foreign to me, I was actually dissapointed with a win. Happy to win, but felt we should have played better
The loss to essendon was the last straw, that was it, no more. We're better than that, and we know it, we just have to want it. Alot of talk was made all week that perhaps this would break us and we would be done by hawthorn, I found my self thinking "*** that, we better come out harder" and we came out and showed that we want it, we've had enough and we want it.
We showed it again against st.kilda last night, even when they hit the front, I knew we wouldnt have this game stolen from us, not like against west coast, not like against essendon, and not against a team we havnt beaten in nearly a decade!
I think this may be the feeling amongst most supporters now, and i feel that is because we can see it amongst the group, and we havnt seen it in a long time, and some of us like my self have never seen a Richmond team like this that clearly WANTS to win.
Perhaps it will all come crashing down, maybe I am jumping the gun, some of you may even wish that I didn't make this thread as it leaves me vulnerable for abuse if it does go pear shaped, but you know what? I don't care! This would be the most passionate I've felt about this club, and this time I feel things are different!
Keep a lid on it hey
Being 23, the most success I've seen was us getting our pants pulled down by Essendon, then scraping a victory against carlton in a semi final (which i thoroughly enjoyed, don't get me wrong)
Since 2001 it has always felt like the team is just not good enough and doesnt want it bad enough. Even during 2005 and 2008 when we showed signs we may be improving, it felt like we always needed everything to go our way to win games, and that we would hope the opposition may have an off day so that we could steal a win. I felt like that mentality of "hope we play well" changed after the Rd 1 2009 thumping at the hands of carlton to "i hope we dont get beaten to badly.."
That mindset is long gone now, i felt it begining to change last year, and i feel the losses at start of this have completely stripped us of "i hope we play well" to expecting that we will play our best, and if we do play our best, we will win.
I was bitterly disspointed after the loss to carlton in Rd 1, as i expected better in that last quater. The 6 minutes it took collingwood to beat us in the 3rd quater was also bitterly dissapointing, as I expected better. A feeling that i was not use to in the past, and i would have just gone with "oh well at least we were ok"
The geelong loss it cut deep as i thought we had their measure, but couldnt go hard enough for 4 quaters.
The loss to west coast is the game that i feel started the change, as after that game the expectation of doing better was amplified with the feeling of "I've had enough of **** losing!!" I can't help but feel it was the same among the players, as demonstrated by Newman launching his mouth gard across Etihad's turf.
I knew we would beat port adelaide the next week, enough was enough. In fact, after that game i felt something that was very foreign to me, I was actually dissapointed with a win. Happy to win, but felt we should have played better
The loss to essendon was the last straw, that was it, no more. We're better than that, and we know it, we just have to want it. Alot of talk was made all week that perhaps this would break us and we would be done by hawthorn, I found my self thinking "*** that, we better come out harder" and we came out and showed that we want it, we've had enough and we want it.
We showed it again against st.kilda last night, even when they hit the front, I knew we wouldnt have this game stolen from us, not like against west coast, not like against essendon, and not against a team we havnt beaten in nearly a decade!
I think this may be the feeling amongst most supporters now, and i feel that is because we can see it amongst the group, and we havnt seen it in a long time, and some of us like my self have never seen a Richmond team like this that clearly WANTS to win.
Perhaps it will all come crashing down, maybe I am jumping the gun, some of you may even wish that I didn't make this thread as it leaves me vulnerable for abuse if it does go pear shaped, but you know what? I don't care! This would be the most passionate I've felt about this club, and this time I feel things are different!
Keep a lid on it hey
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