ROUND 5 REVIEW

“Stadium operators have started taking special security precautions when hosting Richmond matches — so predictable has a Tigers loss, and the subsequent fan fury become.”

This quote was in an article from The Age 27 April 2004.

The quote above struck me above anything else I’ve read these past few weeks. I think the key words are “so predictable has a Tigers loss…..become”. Is there any greater shame than that? To me it’s perhaps one of the most embarrassing things about this losing streak. It has been accepted as predictable.

Frawley 2000 – early promises
I know it’s stretching the memory of many a Tiger fan, but cast your mind, if you can, back to February 2000. Danny Frawley’s first game as Coach was a night game against the reigning premier North Melbourne.

That night we were scrappy, but highly competitive, losing by just a couple of straight kicks. New coach Danny Frawley promised that Richmond would no longer rely on emotion to win games. The new benchmark for winning would be an improved skill level! Our players would become highly skilled over the next few years and win their share of games accordingly.

Fast-forward 4 years and 2 months.

Frawley 2004 - appraisal
By his own benchmark, Danny Frawley and his renowned team of Assistant Coaches have failed to deliver the skilful football team we were promised. Even at their best and playing confident football, as they did against Collingwood in Round 1, Richmond could never be regarded as highly skilful. Clearly this has been a massive failing of the Coaching panel.

But this is not our only weakness. There are two other glaring weaknesses in this team that haven’t received much attention.

Recruitment or Lack of Development ???
Many judges are quick to highlight Richmond’s poor recruiting record in recent seasons. Is this fair? We can all be experts in hindsight, but the facts are Richmond drafted the best talent available to it at the time, and sure there are a few wasted trades and picks – Paul Hudson being one that comes immediately to mind, but other clubs have also had their share of draft blunders. Richmond has recruited several players as first round picks: Ottens, Pettifer and Fiora are the big 3. Is their lack of progress a recruiting failure or a development failure? I believe the evidence points more to a development failure. My conclusion is borne out of comparison with the number of similar cases in point at Tigerland.

Too many Richmond players have simply marked time from where they were 3-4 years ago. Apart from Pettifer, Ottens and Fiora, players such as Joel Bowden, Ray Hall and Andy Kellaway are other examples, but just as worrying are the signs for youngsters in Chris Hyde, David Rodan and Jay Schulz. We talk now of exciting youngsters in Dean Hartigan and Tom Roach, but they are the Kayne Pettifer’s and David Rodan’s of 2 years ago. My fear is that they too will hit a brick wall in their development.

A Losing Culture
I’m wondering what effect Richmond’s losing culture is having on the development process of our young players. Very few players seem to have been able to cast it aside and achieve their potential. Those who have in the past 5 years might include Mark Coughlan, Chris Newman, Ty Zantuck and to some degree Andrew Krakouer and that’s about it. For a while there in 2001, it appeared our losing Culture had been defeated, but it will take several seasons of achievement to put it behind us.

Compounding the lack of development is the form of Wayne Campbell and Darren Gaspar. It’s distinctly possible that Campbell and Gaspar have reached their career peaks and are physically unable to do the job we have come to expect of them.

Few people have noted this, but Darren Gaspar only took the step up from good defender to top-line All-Australian defender in 2001, when Ben Holland established himself at Centre Half Back and basically got the key opposition big each week. It was Holland, not Gaspar who took on Warren Tredrea, Anthony Rocca, David Schwarz, Scott Lucas, Jonathan Brown etc. With Holland getting the biggest forward, Gaspar got the second biggest and Andy Kellaway took the third biggest. As a result Gaspar and Kellaway, despite their lack of bulk and size, ended up looking like pretty good defenders.

This balance was unsettled when Holland blew a knee 2 years ago. Instantly Richmond struggled to replace him. Gaspar and Andy Kellaway were quickly exposed as being undersized. This problem has of course, become further compounded with Gaspar doing his knee last year and Holland being traded to Melbourne. Tall off-season recruits in Shane Morrison, Luke Weller and Ben Marsh had better start to put their hand up for a key defensive post, because right now the task of holding up the back half appears to be well beyond Gaspar and Andy Kellaway. In fact probably the best Tiger key defender all year has been the under-sized Ty Zantuck. Zantuck did a fair job on Neitz and an excellent job on St Kilda’s Aaron Hamill a week later. My money is on Morrison. I think like Holland, he has the right physique to go back and take on the Rocca’s and Tredrea’s. This would allow Ottens and Richardson to remain forward with Jay Schulz and Ray Hall slotting in as Half Forward marking options.

Lack of Physical Enforcers
The other major concern I have about Richmond is its lack of physical intimidation and protection of key players.

In round 2 against Melbourne, captain Wayne Campbell had to leave the field with blood from a whack in the nose. A week later Kane Johnson suffered a similar fate. Which Richmond player or group of players came in to sort this out and show some passion for their leaders? One Richmond player, Shane Morrison even came out publicly to say he was a nice guy! Geez Shane, how about letting opposition teams at least think you go around on angry pills. Did you learn anything by being Jonathan Brown’s understudy?

Campbell, after the Rd 2 loss to the Demons, suggested that Richmond played its best footy when they were aggressive. Surely, this comment was more borne out of wishful thinking because in recent seasons, apart from Greg Stafford, Tim Fleming and at times Ty Zantuck and Rory Hilton, I can’t recall any Tigers showing interest in playing the game with angry pills. We certainly have our share of players who don’t like it tight and tough. Bowden, Tivendale, Chaffey and Fiora are just a few who all like the wide-open spaces.

Compare this to teams such as Essendon and Brisbane. At Essendon, it’s the Johnsons, McPhee, Solomon, Lloyd and McVeigh who display the passion the Bombers are renowned for. In Brisbane, it’s virtually the whole side.

Another factor that shouldn’t be overlooked is the phasing out or retirement of players such as Matty Rogers, Steven Sziller, Matthew Knights, Duncan Kellaway, Benny Gale and Paul Broderick. With the exception of Greg Stafford, no-one else comes to mind who has been prepared to step into their shoes and set a physical, leadership example.

The Report Card Summary

• Lacks skill
• Too many of it’s middle-tier and young players have not developed; and
• It is a football team severely deficient of physical presence and leadership.

The only Richmond players who can hold their heads high at this point in time in 2004 are Brent Hartigan, Tom Roach, Nathan Brown and Andrew Krakouer.

Others such as Tim Fleming, Greg Tivendale, Chris Newman, Andy Kellaway, Ray Hall, Mark Chaffey and Ty Zantuck have at least displayed something, albeit a bit inconsistently. That’s about it.

The rest are a sad lot headed by the experienced group of Gaspar, Campbell, Johnson, Ottens and Bowden. It will be interesting to see who the rumoured “big names facing the axe” are. Richmond simply doesn’t have the guts to drop several of that group.

Due to lack of recent opportunity, the jury remains out on players such as Justin Blumfield, Ben Marsh, Marc Dragicevic, Adam Houlihan, Simon Fletcher, Rory Hilton, Jay Schulz, Luke Weller and Kayne Pettifer. In the coming weeks, the Tigers are likely to give opportunity to this group as they seek to find out who has the “fire in the belly” as well as the necessary skill level to restore some credibility to the Richmond cause. Pettifer, Schulz and Fletcher all played well in VFL on weekend, so expect to see them line-up in the Seniors on Friday night.

When the going gets tough…..
Through this 4-week crisis, I applaud Danny Frawley for the way he has handled himself. I think he has shown the exact kind of leadership skills and strength of character, which Richmond needs in spades right now. To replace him now would be a mistake. He would simply be yet another in a succession of Coaching scapegoats at Tigerland over the past 20 years. Not only does he deserve better than that, but the Richmond Football Club and it’s senior playing group must not yield to the tempting “quick-fix” but instead knuckle down - just like any other club who loses 4 on the trot – work through it and emerge as a Club whose credibility is at least temporarily restored.

As optimistic as this may sound, it would not surprise me to see a Richmond victory against Hawthorn on Friday night. If there is one Club I think are vulnerable right now to the Tigers it is Hawthorn. Neither side will have forgotten the Tigers amazing victory of just 12 months ago, when they overcame a second quarter 50 point deficit to kick 14 unanswered goals. Their return bout was late last year where the Tigers went down by just a couple of points. Like Richmond, Hawthorn is over-rated and soft. Having said that this clash looms as a chance for several key Hawks to run into form, in particular tall forwards Nick Holland and Nathan Thompson. With Richmond’s current dearth of in form tall defenders, it is hard to see how they can compete with the Hawks in the air.

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