Match Thread. Richmond, Round 6.

[rickmat]

Just watched Access All Areas on AFL website for a few moments and heard those "experts" Damian Barrett, who is employed by AFL, and Lloyd who is always "right"!! Comment about the Swans. Barrett agreed with Hardwick and kept saying it. And Lloyd said Swans will be bottom 2 but didn't really argue hard with Barrett. Barrett is really a well known loser. I'm so glad Horse stood up for himself and the Swans. No love lost now

[bloodspirit]

I agree. Hardwick must realise it’s his responsibility to counter these tactics.

Clubs have figured out when you play Richmond to chip the ball around and keep possession when you have it, and when they have it to flood defensive 50.

Yet he refused to even up numbers allowing us to chip it around and with Robbie Fox playing on Tom Lynch they kicked 4 goals from 50+ inside 50s.

I’m sure someone in the media will point this out today. My guess is someone at the Age.

I saw this tweet further down that Twitter feed:

"Anthony Leach
@ahleach

Rhyce Shaw has until COB Thursday to submit his game plan and match tactics to Damian Hardwick for approval. #AFLTigersNorth"

Nicely put.

[MattW]

I saw this tweet further down that Twitter feed:

"Anthony Leach
@ahleach

Rhyce Shaw has until COB Thursday to submit his game plan and match tactics to Damian Hardwick for approval. #AFLTigersNorth"

Nicely put.

Mills picked up a perfect 10 from the coaches; impressive in a losing team. Fox picked up 3 votes, too.

Coaches' votes, R6: Bomber back in form, Lachie fails to fire

- - - Updated - - -

Didn't mean to quote your post, bloodspirit.

[MattW]

Another good interview with John here. Gerard Healy watches us closer than most.

John Longmire gives an insight into his phone call with Damien Hardwick – 3AW

[Blood Fever]

Another good interview with John here. Gerard Healy watches us closer than most.

John Longmire gives an insight into his phone call with Damien Hardwick – 3AW

Thx for posting this MW. Do you know who the d......head was who asked if we deliberately try and play negatively? It was like 2005 all over again. Typical of Melbourne footy media. Lazy stereotyping

[MattW]

Thx for posting this MW. Do you know who the d......head was who asked if we deliberately try and play negatively? It was like 2005 all over again. Typical of Melbourne footy media. Lazy stereotyping

Sam McClure.

[MattW]

Excellent, well-sources analysis on the game from Jake Niall.

AFL 2020: Was there a guilty party in the blame game?

[Blood Fever]

Excellent, well-sources analysis on the game from Jake Niall.

AFL 2020: Was there a guilty party in the blame game?

Agree and Jonathan Brown On the Couch exonerated the Swans and put more blame on Hardwick. Other Melbourne brown noses like Barrett of course backed up their mate 'Dimma'.

[stevoswan]

Barrett is a classic example of a Melbourne suck who knows who butters his bread. Very ignorable yes man.....but who unfortunately has 'opinion influence' and just reinforces the negative view he wants Vic fans to have of the Swans. A low life mercenary for his state league's interests....

[Swanny40519]

I watched On The Couch last night and despite Lyons trying to get the panel to square the blame on the Swans, Brown showed TV footage that proved the Tigers were the one putting an extra man in the centre and leaving Mills on his own.

MR D Head Barrett sucks up big time to the Melbourne footy mafia and press. It is a disgrace that he is paid by the AFL(VFL) to write the rubbish he publishes.

[Blood Fever]

I watched On The Couch last night and despite Lyons trying to get the panel to square the blame on the Swans, Brown showed TV footage that proved the Tigers were the one putting an extra man in the centre and leaving Mills on his own.

MR D Head Barrett sucks up big time to the Melbourne footy mafia and press. It is a disgrace that he is paid by the AFL(VFL) to write the rubbish he publishes.

On the committee of The Melbourne Boys Club. Lyon and Lloyd sit close by.

[bloodspirit]

Titus' take on the game:


Richmond (34) v Sydney (26)

Damien Hardwick said of this match, “It was a horrendous game of football.”

Typical coaches, always talking up a game.

This was about as bad a game as you’ll ever see.

The Swans fielded a team of short teenagers and looked like the Auskick team had been allowed to remain on the ground.

Hardwick blamed Sydney for the poor game, saying “There’s not much I can do. We’re attacking, we’ve got 75,000 people in our forward 50.”

It did seem at times that Sydney threw any idea of social distancing aside and jammed more people into their defence than a nightclub dancefloor pre-Covid.

Yet, I’m not sure this was a tactic, but rather the fact that the Tigers won the ball all the time and just kept attacking, where else would the Sydney players be?

Not that knowing this made it any better to watch. It was a game that made you wonder if watching sport is worth it sometimes.

With nothing happening for long periods on the field, it gave me time to think, never a good thing.

Stuck in lockdown, with this monstrosity on the tele, my thoughts turned to how maybe this is life now, never to change.

But it will be over at some point, and we will all be able to tell our kids and grandkids about how we lived through a pandemic and never complained and all came together, even though in reality we all whinged the entire time and turned on each other often.

That’s the wonderful thing about the past, we just select the bits we want to remember, like it’s a buffet.

[bloodspirit]

Due to school holidays haven't had much chance to post my thoughts but broadly they are in line with the majority of posters, especially the likes of MattW, BloodFever and deja (all of whom I am in agreement with most of the time). A few specific comments:

* Rowbottom is a bottler! Very glad to have him. He's a beacon of hope.

* was good to get some games into the kids and they acquitted themselves creditably in the circumstances. We could hardly have backed our youth more than we did.

* I am always grateful for Hewett. Seriously underrated. So reliable with the ball in hand. Not quick or flashy but takes good options and has that ability to just hold the ball a moment longer looking for the right option. Helps that he's so strong and tough to tackle.

* I too am really frustrated, even annoyed, with Blakey. What I'm seeing is (a) as others have pointed out, he tries to do too much; and (b) he is absent for large chunks of games; and (c) at times he seems too casual, especially in his kicking for goal. I wonder if this last issue is a self-confidence problem - he just doesn't believe in himself enough at the moment to take it seriously. What I would like to see from him is a really deliberate, methodical, calm approach to shots at goal, at least set shots. Give himself the best chance. Rather than just fearing it will go wrong and pulling the trigger hastily because "what's the difference?". I'm not sure what the best solution is but I tend to think he should be dropped for a while to go back and work on his game out of the limelight because we have given him ample opportunity to work his way through it and that approach just does not seem to be working. Clearly he is a super talented player and has the ability to play at this level but at the moment he is just wasting his ability and he needs to figure out why, and how to stop doing so. He also needs to get stronger of body so that he isn't pushed off the ball so easily.

* I thought Clarke deserved his place in the team this week.

* Better game from Hayward. Long term I think he is a natural forward, but short-medium term I think it is well worth experimenting with him in other roles, back and even pinch hitting on ball. It wouldn't surprise me to see him turned into a defender and then, in a few seasons time, to return forward when circumstances dictate.

* Papley is so good. Currently our most dangerous forward by a mile. He really does deserve more money.

[Ludwig]

* Rowbottom is a bottler!

Do you mean he can be replaced by a machine?

[Nico]

Sam McClure.

Self important tosser. SEN pumped him up last year and it has gone to his head. Thinks he is controversial.