Richo about to give press conference!!!!!

[SaintPav]

Sacked?

[Drake Huggins]

From someone who listened, was this actually in a finger pointing tone... not my fault it was the players type of thing

I know only the players can play the game but I would be mighty disappointed if that was the case

So in the last week he's thrown Elshaug under the bus (with some justification), bemoaned Paddy's lack of fitness(nothing to do with himself of course ) and now pointing the finger at the players. Methinks someone is right under the pump internally and has trotted out some self protective excuses. This just gets worse.

[spert]

Sounds like a bloke who has run out of ideas.

[st.byron]

Sounds like a bloke who has run out of ideas.

At least he acknowledges it was a mental focus problem. Has he got the skills to change that in a sustained way? I don’t reckon.

[Linton Lodger]

From someone who listened, was this actually in a finger pointing tone... not my fault it was the players type of thing

I know only the players can play the game but I would be mighty disappointed if that was the case

So in the last week he's thrown Elshaug under the bus (with some justification), bemoaned Paddy's lack of fitness(nothing to do with himself of course ) and now pointing the finger at the players. Methinks someone is right under the pump internally and has trotted out some self protective excuses. This just gets worse.

When did he throw Elshaugh under a bus & bemoan Paddy's fitness? I'm not disputing you, I just haven't heard or seen it.

In regard to his reference of the playing group as "immature" and expecting to just follow on from the finish against Brisbane. He may very well be right on the money.

Drake, surely you cannot dismiss this as an implausible reason for what happened last week? In fact it must be considered a very plausible explanation.

In reality our win against Brisbane, albeit far from a stellar performance, was decent. Our first quarter was good and from red time in the third we were good (at times superb). Obviously we got smashed inside, but that improved, Steven stepping up and Longer lifted a bit.

I think we are disrespecting Brisbane & Chris Fagen, after all didn't their game last week against Melbourne roll in a very similar manner to our Round 1 clash? Are Melbourne also overrated rubbish?

Our performance on Good Friday reeks of a young team getting ahead of themselves. This mindset actually started last year, in the first Richmond game!

Our first half in that game was the culmination of what our team was aspiring to become, where we saw the gameplan in its full glory. Then they came out in the second half and just expected it to roll on and we lost the second half by 5 goals, we'd completely stopped by the final quarter. After been delighted by the first half, I left that game annoyed half way through the final quarter and I remember thinking "they're way too young to play Finals". It continued and how, the next week against Essendon and I don't think we ever really regained our form.

You could criticise Richo, the coaching team and the leadership group for not identifying this issue back then, but they may just have hit the nail on the head now.

Richo first mentioned this on AFL360, he also said "I'm confident it won't happen again". A simple statement, but a big call from the Coach when you think about it.

The next month will tell us if Friday was indeed a harsh, but beneficial learning experience.

[dragit]

Sounds like a bloke who has run out of ideas.

At least he acknowledges it was a mental focus problem. Has he got the skills to change that in a sustained way? I don’t reckon.

It's just not good enough at this level... your team that is supposed to be vying for a spot in eight barely gets over the wooden spooner only due to some magic from Jack Steven... and you don't ensure they are switched on the next week?

We were rubbish against Brisbane, were smashed in the midfield and ruck... had poor forward pressure, yet no changes - the coach and selection committee should have not rested on the laurels of scraping a win over the bottom side.

[SaintPav]

At the post game Lion's presser Richo said that Trout, aka flathead was the key driver behind Paddy's recruitment.

[GSG]

In reality our win against Brisbane, albeit far from a stellar performance, was decent. Our first quarter was good and from red time in the third we were good (at times superb). Obviously we got smashed inside, but that improved, Steven stepping up and Longer lifted a bit.

I think we are disrespecting Brisbane & Chris Fagen, after all didn't their game last week against Melbourne roll in a very similar manner to our Round 1 clash? Are Melbourne also overrated rubbish?

Our performance on Good Friday reeks of a young team getting ahead of themselves. This mindset actually started last year, in the first Richmond game!

Our first half in that game was the culmination of what our team was aspiring to become, where we saw the gameplan in its full glory. Then they came out in the second half and just expected it to roll on and we lost the second half by 5 goals, we'd completely stopped by the final quarter. After been delighted by the first half, I left that game annoyed half way through the final quarter and I remember thinking "they're way too young to play Finals". It continued and how, the next week against Essendon and I don't think we ever really regained our form.

1+++

[Linton Lodger]

At the post game Lion's presser Richo said that Trout, aka flathead was the key driver behind Paddy's recruitment.

I did hear that, I didn't take it as him throwing Elshaugh under the bus. It was said in the context of Paddy's selflessness.

[Drake Huggins]

Good post, LL. I concur with most of it. He threw Elshaug under the bus in his presser after the north game when he was grilled by a journo about Paddy's performance. He told us that Tony Elshaug had," assured us he was going to be a great player who would give us 10-12 years of good footy." It was the tone and context that said so much. The comment caused some in the media to say he was pointing the finger at Elshaug, not unreasonably in the circumstances.

The skin folds issue was raised on SEN. Matthew Lloyd raised it on the weekend and was accused of "fat shaming" Paddy by Chris Judd on FC. Gerard Healy also wondered aloud on 3AW as to how someone is allowed to play in that condition, when skin folds of > 60 usually consigns you to the VFL and a mini preseason until you're up to speed.

You're also right about the next 4-5 weeks, LL. They are critical, not just for the sake of the season, but the short term future of the club. If we lose to all of Adelaide, GWS, Geelong at Geelong, Hawthorn in Launceston and Freo over there, the place could go into meltdown the way we did after the Hawthorn loss in 1999 under Timid.

Before the preseason I hoped we'd get to the end of round 8 with a 4-4 record. I thought that was realistic, but I assumed we'd win the first two, beat the filth and pick up an upset over the better teams on the way. Alas, I believe I was too optimistic. I desperately want them to succeed, but I've seen this all before, unfortunately. I thought the danger signs were obvious late last year. That was the time to act. Weren't a string of disappointing losses when we were right in finals contention not enough to alert someone that we were not as good as we thought?

The loss of Roo and Joey has been far more devastating than anyone cares to admit. We have a huge leadership vacuum, which is a major part of our malaise. Throw in the fact that AR is reactive and even then is slow to react and you can see why Friday happened. It's not acceptable and it is far from pleasing or positive.

[SaintPav]

At the post game Lion's presser Richo said that Trout, aka flathead was the key driver behind Paddy's recruitment.

I did hear that, I didn't take it as him throwing Elshaugh under the bus. It was said in the context of Paddy's selflessness.

You're not wrong, and maybe that was the literal interpretation but when you consider that specific play where Paddy should have either given it off earlier or just gone back and kicked it instead of nearly sending Bruce to hospital to have his kidney removed, it appeared to me that the selfishness angle was a deflection. I think the referral to Elshaug was a Freudian slip.

[Con Gorozidis]

If it wasn't for the individual brilliance of Jack Steven we would have lost to Brisbane in R 1.

The coach should have been livid.
There was plenty of warning signs.

[SaintPav]

If it wasn't for the individual brilliance of Jack Steven we would have lost to Brisbane in R 1.

The coach should have been livid.
There was plenty of warning signs.

I think Richo is old school and very much in the mould of Leigh Matthews. Will publicly back his players and keeps everything else behind closed doors.

[stonecold]

Good post, LL. I concur with most of it. He threw Elshaug under the bus in his presser after the north game when he was grilled by a journo about Paddy's performance. He told us that Tony Elshaug had," assured us he was going to be a great player who would give us 10-12 years of good footy." It was the tone and context that said so much. The comment caused some in the media to say he was pointing the finger at Elshaug, not unreasonably in the circumstances.

The skin folds issue was raised on SEN. Matthew Lloyd raised it on the weekend and was accused of "fat shaming" Paddy by Chris Judd on FC. Gerard Healy also wondered aloud on 3AW as to how someone is allowed to play in that condition, when skin folds of > 60 usually consigns you to the VFL and a mini preseason until you're up to speed.

You're also right about the next 4-5 weeks, LL. They are critical, not just for the sake of the season, but the short term future of the club. If we lose to all of Adelaide, GWS, Geelong at Geelong, Hawthorn in Launceston and Freo over there, the place could go into meltdown the way we did after the Hawthorn loss in 1999 under Timid.

Before the preseason I hoped we'd get to the end of round 8 with a 4-4 record. I thought that was realistic, but I assumed we'd win the first two, beat the filth and pick up an upset over the better teams on the way. Alas, I believe I was too optimistic. I desperately want them to succeed, but I've seen this all before, unfortunately. I thought the danger signs were obvious late last year. That was the time to act. Weren't a string of disappointing losses when we were right in finals contention not enough to alert someone that we were not as good as we thought?

The loss of Roo and Joey has been far more devastating than anyone cares to admit. We have a huge leadership vacuum, which is a major part of our malaise. Throw in the fact that AR is reactive and even then is slow to react and you can see why Friday happened. It's not acceptable and it is far from pleasing or positive.

Fair dinkum DH, you are suffering from a severe case of what's known as 'Media Poison', this is highly contagious and it is recommended that you stop listening to external opinions of Clowns that make a living from guessing what is actually happening within other organisations!!!!!

No wonder your such a negative Nancy!!!!!

Turn the radio off, no TV and stay of media website's!!!!!

It explains much about your thought processes though and why you post the junk you do!!!!!

[nw7]

In regard to his reference of the playing group as "immature" and expecting to just follow on from the finish against Brisbane.
The players got this 100% right nothing immature about it. We were really crap against Brisbane and followed on from that game and became even worse. If our match review was carried out properly we would have identified how bad we played and rectified it, not focus on the win and say there is nothing to see here, the coaches as well as the players need to take responsibility for the Good Friday debacle. JLT was also terrible, lots of opportunities to address the issues.

[ace]

From someone who listened, was this actually in a finger pointing tone... not my fault it was the players type of thing

I know only the players can play the game but I would be mighty disappointed if that was the case

So in the last week he's thrown Elshaug under the bus (with some justification), bemoaned Paddy's lack of fitness(nothing to do with himself of course ) and now pointing the finger at the players. Methinks someone is right under the pump internally and has trotted out some self protective excuses. This just gets worse.

Squashed trout now called Sushi.

[congorozides]

Has to be one of the more pointless 'press conferences' in living memory.

[Moods]

In regard to his reference of the playing group as "immature" and expecting to just follow on from the finish against Brisbane.
The players got this 100% right nothing immature about it. We were really crap against Brisbane and followed on from that game and became even worse. If our match review was carried out properly we would have identified how bad we played and rectified it, not focus on the win and say there is nothing to see here, the coaches as well as the players need to take responsibility for the Good Friday debacle. JLT was also terrible, lots of opportunities to address the issues.

Exactly right.

[iwantmeseats]

In regard to his reference of the playing group as "immature" and expecting to just follow on from the finish against Brisbane.
The players got this 100% right nothing immature about it. We were really crap against Brisbane and followed on from that game and became even worse. If our match review was carried out properly we would have identified how bad we played and rectified it, not focus on the win and say there is nothing to see here, the coaches as well as the players need to take responsibility for the Good Friday debacle. JLT was also terrible, lots of opportunities to address the issues.

Spot on. There was ZERO to take out of the brisbane game, besides falling over and colliding with 4 points.
Rubbish game, rubbish standard...only to be outdone by the following week.

You realise just how mightly far off anywhere we are when you watch something like Mondays Hawks v Cats game..and they are not even the two top teams !

[congorozides]

Serious question.

Are the players still 'over-confident' on the back of the Lions game good form?

[axcellence]

Just whatever. Should have been a cricket coach coz all he could do is spin!