Thank god for the bye this week

[barry]

Coming back from a hard game in Perth, and desperately in need of a win, it is a small blessing that we meet a tanking Richmond (ie. the bye round) at home.

I'd be tempted to rest Hall and Kennelly again to make sure they are at peak fitness for the last few rounds. Leo Barry probably needs to let his hammy recover too.

We have some good 'ins' this week:
Buchanon (we have really missed his hard ball gets)
LRT (we have really missed his height down back)

Good game to get these players back up to the speed of senior footy.

[NMWBloods]

Good way to lose the unloseable game!

[barry]

Nah, tanking is rampant in the AFL, and we could field our 2nd's side and still be guaranteed a win here. Richmond will roll over.

Seriously.

As an aside, I hope the AFL address this issue of tanking. It is a blight on the game.

[ItsAllGoodes]

Nah, tanking is rampant in the AFL, and we could field our 2nd's side and still be guaranteed a win here. Richmond will roll over.

So...what your saying is...we could field the Canberra Wildcats and Richmond would still lose???

[573v30]

Should be a good contest, expecting a much better 1st quarter effort from Sydney and hoping the winning margin is in excess of 100 points. Richmond are a poor side and shouldn't lose games by small margins.

[hammo]

Should be a good contest, expecting a much better 1st quarter effort from Sydney and hoping the winning margin is in excess of 100 points. Richmond are a poor side and shouldn't lose games by small margins.

The next two weeks are crucial to get some form into our forwards and midfield especially, and to boost percentage.

I'm assuming that if we're genuine contenders (as we keep getting told) then both can and will be achieved.

With Carlton, Richmond and Melbourne all consistently losing by very big margins at the end of the season we can't assume that other clubs around us won't overtake our good percentage by the end of the year. So that makes the next 2 weeks crucial.

[Hazcam]

I wouldn't be so sure. Richmond in Sydney has always been a danger game and we did'nt exactly pummell them at the G earlier this year.

They scored 46 points in the 1st qtr vs Port and were behind by 12! I think they'll give our midfield a massive wake up call and don't be surprised if they're leading at half time.

We'll still win but not by as much as people think.
Also, we haven't exactly taken the world by storm in our night matches either.

We've won 1/8 this year at night and only lost once (vs Geelong by 18) in our other day fixtures.

Interesting....

[ScottH]

we currently have a 6 week cyler happening.

1	l	l	l
2	w	w	w
3	w	w	w
4	l	l	l
5	w	w	
6	l	l

This means our last 6 games are:

Richmond	w
Melbourne	l
St. Kilda	l
Brisbane Lions	w
Collingwood	w
Hawthorn	l

You can now safely book your holidays in September.

[NMWBloods]

That looks eerily possible!!

[TheMase]

we currently have a 6 week cyler happening.

1	l	l	l
2	w	w	w
3	w	w	w
4	l	l	l
5	w	w	
6	l	l

This means our last 6 games are:

Richmond	w
Melbourne	l
St. Kilda	l
Brisbane Lions	w
Collingwood	w
Hawthorn	l

You can now safely book your holidays in September.

That is insane.

[bloodboy]

I don't think cockiness gets you anywhere in this game so I really hope none of the players read this and get ahead of themselves...

The Tiges won't be tanking. Terry is under extreme pressure at the moment...he just can't afford to be tanking at any time. There is mounting dissent from the Richmond faithful to get him out of there and I would not be surprised to see him go at the end of the season...I don't think he'll be wanting to tank games. I still can't believe the Blues dumped Pagan...they must be getting Mother Teresa in as their next coach as they obviously want a miracle worker. I reckon he will head to the Tiges as seasons end...

[dimelb]

The Tiges won't be tanking. Terry is under extreme pressure at the moment...he just can't afford to be tanking at any time. There is mounting dissent from the Richmond faithful to get him out of there and I would not be surprised to see him go at the end of the season...I don't think he'll be wanting to tank games.

I'm not a Wallace fan but I don't think the Tiges can blame him. The combination of horror injuries and poor recruiting have sunk their chances for at least another season and probably two. As Walls pointed out last week, they could have had either Roughead or Franklin but took a couple of midfielders instead. And fancy taking Kent Kingsley. They are dumb enough to take one or two of our less well performed mids.

[mcs]

if we have problems beating richmond then we are well and truly gone for the season. The next two weeks I will be disappointed if we dont win by at least what we beat Carlton by (About 10 goals). We need to get the percentage up and need to start hitting some good form. For while they are tough games in the sense that we are fully expected to win them, we have to really try to use them to get players into form and get the team playing a definite game plan. For also they could be great momentum builders- for I think if you have no momentum going on the run into September then no matter where you finish within the eight you are going to be in trouble. Whether or not it happens is another thing though!