I feel I should update my post from two weeks ago, as my views have changed since. I am starting to doubt that Dimma and the players are really on the same page. I still don’t know what the plan is, but Dimma said himself on Saturday night that the 22 did not execute any of it, at any stage. It was an absolute stinker and it got worse as the night went on. A small gap never looked like being closed, and in the last quarter we mustered one behind.

The total crowd of 27,700 suggests that at the very most 22,000 Tigers turned up. So that is one part of my narrative I am sticking to; don’t kid yourself that Tigers fans are exceptional in some way. Our team stinks and we have stopped going along; and rightly so. No criticism intended, how else can you send a message that you are disgusted with what we are serving up? People have other things in their lives. Their footy season is dead on the vine before the end of April and I think any mental health advocate would agree its time to get out in the shed and work on rebuilding that Morris Marina, or join a choir, or volunteer to read to kids at the library.

The horror show wasn’t on TV or ABC radio so I have been spared the worst so far (I will watch it soon because I believe in embracing the pain to deepen the enjoyment of the success which is probably a Catholic thing).

I was trying to work during the game but kept checking Twitter where it unfolded like this.

That was the worst half of football by @Richmond_FC in the last decade. Bereft of ideas, lack of pace and no leaders @ali_yesilyurt

Ellis kicks horribly again and Port go all the way for a goal. Brutal. @chiefinkorea

Heaps of Richmond fans leaving already   @CherylCritchley

They say not supporting this is not supporting your club. I refuse to support such ineptitude. Always a Tiger, but Hardwick can get stuffed. @GregGibbo28

Pick 1 looking a distinct possibility. We are playing the worst footy in the comp. @Tigers_of_Old

And of course a lot of frustrated singling out of individuals. Judging by the tweets we were lazy, careless and at times gutless. The question has to be asked at Punt Road; why is this group not giving their all for the coach and the club? Has Dimma, after an effective and successful stint, reached the end of his road with these players?

@GregGibbo28 penned a great piece after the game that is well worth a read.

Myself; I do not accept that the quality of our list explains a performance like that, or a 1-5 start. Individuals are not giving us what they capable of, whether that’s down to niggling injuries, tiredness or just loss of faith in Dimma and maybe some of the players around them.

Edwards, Brandon Ellis and Martin are skilled players who are massively underperforming on what we have come to expect. Add that to our injury problems and some inexplicable selections, and I think we end up with 22 blokes looking at each other as they go through the banner thinking “I don’t think this team can win”. Because that is how they are playing – there is a resignation, a sense of giving in to the inevitable.

I do want to thank Robbo and the subs at the Herald Sun for this story and headline, it really gave a lot footy followers a good laugh on Saturday and threw the evening’s events into sharp relief.

As a calming and  forward-looking exercise I have picked a team to play Hawthorn. I would love to have Chol and Marcon in there too but they are unpromoted rookies and not eligible for selection – this is another one of the many finer points of modern footy I don’t understand. (I have also never bothered to learn what a powerplay is in one day cricket.) To quote Corbo who had a preview of my team, the “back 6 looks like it would let in 25 Essendon goals”.

B Astbury Elton Batchelor

HB Broad Houli McIntosh

C Rioli Grigg C Ellis

HF Short Griffiths Deledio

F Lloyd Riewoldt Lennon

FOL Maric  Martin Edwards

I/C Miles Castagna Vickery Menadue

Ins: McIntosh Elton  Lennon  Short  Griffiths  Broad

Outs: Lambert Cotchin B Ellis Hampson Chaplin Morris

Injured/Susp: Vlastuin Cotchin Lambert Grimes  Rance Conca Yarran Drummond

We are pretty used to this now; the high hopes, the slow start, the injuries, the scapegoats, the excuses, the footy media loving it, the coach in post-match giving away nothing. It’s all standard.

I am suspicious of any special pleading, the claims that Richmond is different. We stick out on some measures because we have a big membership compared to our historic ladder positions. Aside from that we have had a premiership drought (common), a bad run with injuries (common) we have lost some close games (common) and lost a string of finals (common).

This article by Jonathan Horn is one of many you’ll find as a Tiges supporter telling you that you’re amazingly devoted, your passion is unmatched, you are dyed in the wool, great for footy etc. Talk about having smoke blown up your arse.

I have floated the idea before that the fans are the reason for this club’s persistent failure. I don’t know if it’s true but I think it warrants consideration. The mythology is that we eat ’em alive, and while that phrase was coined to describe our team’s attitude to the opposition, it easily transfers to our administration’s attitude to the coach, and our fans attitude to anyone at the club that’s perceived to be underperforming.

And there are certainly savage responses when we lose the games we shouldn’t; but what club doesn’t have that? Maybe the Giants and Suns are too new to have developed that irascible, scarred, one-eyed hard core that loves a club scapegoat, and thrills to the sound of the knives being sharpened outside the coach’s office. But every other club has this.

What I see on field are inexplicable brain fades. Our problems are so often mental. I do not know what our game plan is, but I’m sure the players do. And its probably a good one. I believe hand-on-heart that Hardwick is a good coach. He has out-coached the benchmark, Alistair Clarkson, on several occasions – the bloke can do the job. I just wonder if the mythology of us as some kind of superfans breeds fear and second-guessing in the players. I am certain that in part it is responsible for the “four walls” nonsense. A few microwaves and some chicken shit and someone once spat on Spud Frawley and that’s why we can’t have nice things. It’s often said that our players are the dumbest, and its often a Tiges fan doing the talking. Now – Cotch giving away 50 by collecting Darling around the chops looked dumb. But his leadership had been bagged all week in the papers, radio and on the TV modular lounge suite programs. I understand why he might have done that.

We try to walk the tightrope here at TTBB. There is no point in just writing Go Tiges, You’re All Lovely Boys. Heads Up! Well, there is room on the spectrum for that but we also have to be a voice for the reasonable frustrations of the fans. Again – any club will have this when they are 1-3 after playing regular finals and expecting to do so again.

April is not a time to point the finger at recruitment. Our unit have a good recent track record, and its early days. But I have a lot of selection questions which I will try to couch in positive language

• McBean can play. He can kick straight. His elevation is a perennial obsession with the fans, and hard heads need to make these decisions. But he has had 2 games. It’s time.
• Batchelor was one of our most improved last year. Hasn’t been sighted this year. Our back six were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, an ARIA award and collective King of Moomba last year – why have we mucked around with it?
• Miles, Edwards, Martin, B. Ellis have all started flat. Miles is a very important player for us and I was shocked to see him dropped to the VFL. Could that happen to the other three?
• How far away is Nathan Drummond from playing?

The good thing is that I think we are going to come right. It’s not going to be a J curve but we will win maybe ten or eleven games this year. We are not going to play finals and that’s disappointing; but I think we are going to unearth some guns and the club is not going to fall apart. We all agreed over summer that going out in the first week of finals again would be a killer; well I think we have avoided that. We stay fit, we stick together, we recruit well and go again in 2017 and play serious finals.

I agree 100% with Andy’s piece today; the club is in great shape. We are miserable because we have been moderately successful and so we have moved the goalposts.

We on this side of the fence can do our part.

1. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves
2. Stop trying to win the “my club is the unluckiest/stupidest” argument with Dees and Dogs fans
3. Get off Dimma’s back
4. Don’t let anyone blow smoke up your arse.

That was as bad a game of footy as I ever want to see. We kicked at goal and around the ground atrociously, copped injuries all over the place, our skills were 2008-standard, the game plan was mystifying and the individual efforts you could respect were few and far between. And Collingwood were worse.

On top of that we lost by the worst margin of all, from a ropey free kick with 4 seconds to go. Oh, and the morons [and I mean that in the strict 1950s medical sense] of the United Patriots Front chose this game to bring an anti-mosques banner to the MCG and also favour Collingwood with their support.

Despite all this, today I still love footy. And I don’t know quite what I can put that down to except that its only April and there is time to improve. Here are my positives.

1. Jayden Short played out of his skin on his debut – which is not a guarantee of longevity (Dean Polo, Dan Connors) but it really counted for something in such a damp team effort.
2. I was impressed with our approach when in possession right from the start – everyone seemed to have taken some Dustin Martin pills. Instead of the handball putting a mate under pressure or the underground kick, Tigers were taking and breaking tackles. Even young players were backing themselves in and despite this tactic we didn’t give up a holding the ball free kick in the first half at all.
3. Jack willed himself into the game
4. Shaun Hampson had a hell of a game. He’s not a popular Tiger and if Maric was available 100% of fans would prefer Maric. And watching him kick for goal could be an alternative non-custodial sentence. But he never gave up, a lot of his tap work was excellent, he laid a superb shirtfront and all carrying a calf injury he picked up in the opening minutes.
5. The youth policy is a good one and we have to keep at it. Menadue, Short, Townsend and Lambert (twice) have been in the best players in these two poor team efforts.
6. Regardless of what is going on in his head, Ty is our most reliable kick for goal.

Of course there were negatives everywhere you look.

1. Again many high profile players had no impact, and it was left to too few. Rance was so good last week but really out of sorts all through last night.
2. Turnovers all night destroyed any flow we looked like developing. Some of the culprits had better dig out the Melways because they’ll be playing at Morris Street, Williamstown next weekend.
3. Kicking for goal was very poor. As John Carr observes in his Midnight Pod of Misery, in one case a left footer lined up for goal like he wasn’t sure what foot he was going to use and kicked it exactly where it was always going to go. Dusty could employ the orthodox drop punt more often.
4. Related; our system needs serious work if it results in suspect kicks like Cotch or Hampson taking set shots. They are always going to miss and that’s a promising inside 50 wasted. As Hampson lined up for goal Bruce McAvaney said “Can kick a goal” – my 14yo said “well yes, technically correct”.
5. Some 2nd year players who played a lot of games last year with the fearlessness of youth, looked last night like they knew enough to have doubts.
6. Decision making is affected by tiredness, and ours was dreadful in the last quarter.
7. I have serious concerns for Ty’s wellbeing. Within 10 minutes he handpassed to a team-mates back, and dobbed a shortpass inside 50 to someone who wasn’t there. He also came out of a pack where Jack had been awarded a mark in front of goal, waving his arms as though appealing for a free. Is he really over his concussion?
8. Injuries are mounting. Shaun Grigg’s calf, Shaun Hampson’s calf, Short’s shoulder, Astbury’s whack in the face all caused concern, and Grimes didn’t return after halftime after a low hammy strain. Unavailable for this game were Edwards, Yarran, Deledio, Maric and Conca. I think we are going to see more youngsters than we expected to over the next month

So more negatives than positives of course. To come are Adelaide at Docklands, West Coast over yonder and Melbourne at the MCG. If you know anything at all about Richmond, you’ll know the one I am dreading is the Dees.

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright is a spare time project, put together out of our love for football and football fans. Specifically for the Richmond Tigers and their unique brand of followers. If you would like to support this project, a range of fundraising products are available here on Redbubble. All profits go to defray the costs involved in running this project.

Our three designs are the classic look-at-me Black On Yellow, the inner-city-cool of Yellow On Black, and the fascinating yet untidy Virtual Duffle Coat. There are shirts and hoodies, mugs, phone covers, pillow covers, leggings, notebooks, pencil cases – too many items to list, in fact just too many items, full stop.

But if you are a Tiger, or you know a Tiger who needs something a bit different to express their Tigerosity – please consider shopping at Redbubble and helping us out at the same time.

 

 

I am so sick of cricket. There are too many kinds going on simultaneously all over the world. It gets you hankering for a game that (The Footy Gospel’s excellent work notwithstanding) is scarcely known beyond these shores. If there’s one thing you can rely on in footy, it’s that your favourite player isn’t going to spend the off season with the Dhaka Danger in the Bangladeshi T20 league. You’d never see our blokes somewhere like that anyway because floodplains are notably poor for altitude training.

So, I haven’t watched any footy since Grand Final Day – still interested in my predictions? I have watched some NAB Challenge highlights. And very misleading they are too, because from reading the stream-of-consciousness of Twitter during the games, people are not that impressed with the overall game of some individuals who come up well in the edited snippets. [Aside – reading tweets of people with pay TV is the new going down to watch colour TV through the window of Radio Rentals – discuss.]

My impressions are just that we seem to have recruited pretty well, Reiwoldt has never looked better, Cotch looks sharper than he has in years, and Jacob Townsend’s tackling technique needs work (he was knocked cold by some Port player’s arse). I am pretty excited by the potential in Mabior Chol, but he is probably in the ‘project player’ category, despite Brendan Lade saying he’s a chance for Round 1. I saw Daniel Rioli’s turn of pace, and what would have been a stunning goal if not for Ty’s radar being a bit wonky. You can’t help but feel excited having a Rioli.

The Port game ended up as a demolition derby, and the main loser is Reece Conca. As far as I know there is no miracle LARS-equivalent for hammies. Only patience and mental toughness will get him back, and I wish the young man all the best with it.

Overall I am pretty optimistic but lets face it, that is based on a very narrow base of information and largely on my sunny good nature. I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t make the 8 this year. Port will not miss out and GWS really look ready to take that step to me. The teams who’ll make way are Adelaide and North. Sydney are going to fall out of contention but still make finals. There’s is one big upwards mover: the Doggies. Here’s my final 8;

West Coast
Western Bulldogs
Hawthorn
Fremantle
– – – – – – – – –
Port Adelaide
Richmond
Greater Western Sydney
Sydney Swans

Premier: West Coast d Westen Bulldogs (Norm Smith to Andrew Gaff of WC)

Coleman Medal: Jeremy Cameron, GWS

Brownlow Medal: Patrick Dangerfield, Geelong

North Melbourne15.15 (105) d Richmond14.4 (88) 

I realised today, a week after the fact, that I had not even vaguely considered writing up the Elimination Final loss to North Melbourne. I thought of this today while I was reading The Holy Boot’s sorrowful Tigers Don’t Win Finals.

As a means of self-preservation I often sarcastically yearn for the days where Richmond were hapless. I understand how to deal with that sort of failure. But this new failure is prickly, it pierces and it leaves you blind with pulsating disappointment. They’re laughing at us again.

Unlike Boot, I put it behind me straight away. I am a less emotional Richmond fan, optimistic by nature and burdened helped by my family makeup; a wife and younger son who barely speak the football language, and an older son who needs a heavy dose of positivity any time Richmond concede a clearance from a stoppage, let alone a goal or a match.The Holy Boot has spent a week in mourning, unable to speak the names of the recently gone missing (Cotch), while I have spent the week pretty much normally with just occasional moments of staring into space, or banging the desk and shouting WHY CHAPPY WHYYYYY to the alarm of pets.

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As footy gets to the end of the season I feel simultaneously the joys of spring and a mild panic at the dwindling number of games. I love the Tigers, I do, but I just love footy as well, so while it continues (counting down now 3 games left) I can distract myself from the misery that I know awaits. After the fella from Synergy Leveraged Events Solutions (probably) depresses the trigger to fire the coloured paper shrapnel at the 2016 premiers, it will be time to face this abyss.

I did go to the local Grand Final yesterday which was a belter, and the emotion at the final siren was as real as anything you’ll see in the AFL; of course I identified with the losers, strewn about the field like bodies at Culloden or Waterloo.

I cannot do what other fans do and throw themselves into trade speculation. There is no joy for me in tipping players to be delisted. The world of nods and winks and late mail about blokes walking out on their clubs – I am happy to read about it all in the past tense in March. No matter what someone has done or not done, if they’re a Tiger I want them to stay. How could Bennell or Yarran be an improvement, they’re not TIGERS.

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I read another great piece today by 14-year-old Paddy Grindlay, Reflections On Another Wasted Year. And I am grateful to Paddy for giving me something I can safely turn my mind to.

Newy is not for booing. Newy is for cheering with emotion, for talking of loyalty and service. Newy is a legacy, he displays the Richmond spirit in every action. But he’s gone now. We are hollow without him.

Who is going to replace Newy? Not just on the list, I mean who is going to replace his heart, his wisdom, his courage and his leadership? I nominate Bachar Houli. Bachar never goes missing. The difference between his best and his worst games is negligible. His courage at the contest and in taking responsibility are unquestioned. As a quality person you would not find better on any list in the league. We did not realise what we were getting when he came across; so much more than we expected.

I am talking to you now Bachar. We need you brother. There are blokes at the club who have been there longer than you, blokes who are younger, there are better players than you, more athletic, blokes with 3rd or 4th generation footy brains in their hands, in their feet. You can teach these guys something. There’ll be new guys coming in, teenagers from the footy factories, journeymen and discards from other clubs, Stevie Morris types who might have won a few premierships in the WAFL or SANFL and think they know what’s what. If you can teach them your calm, your patience and your constancy, we’ll be a better team.

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Let them laugh I say. There is a streak of wilful ignorance running through footy; it expresses itself nastily in booing Adam Goodes but also in the easy stereotypes of clubs. We all love to have a go at the party boys of St Kilda, silvertails of Melbourne etc, but of course St Kilda had Lenny Hayes and Robert Harvey; Melbourne had Rod Grinter. The tropes are easy to overturn. I think the worst thing a club’s followers can do is identify themselves with a defeatist stereotype. I am all for Footscray doing whatever it can to escape the image of doughty battlers. And I refuse to bow to people who want to paint Richmond as chokers.

I believe we can make finals again in 2016. I believe the team owe themselves and the fans a vastly better performance in their next final, and we owe it to the team to expect that. The laughter is nervous laughter. Look at this mighty club, its got its shit together at last, its got 70,000 members and an administration the fans are actually proud of. Imagine if they could just put it all together on the big stage in September. They should laugh while they can. Go Tiges.