Two categories

• Consistency - A player will receive 7.0 points out of ten if he has played 16 games or more this season. If he’s played over 20 than he’ll receive 7.5, this of course excludes injured players. To achieve higher than an 8.0 each player will be assessed on my own personal view of his performances throughout the 2011 season.
• Impact - A player will receive a 7.0 automatically if he’s scored 4 goals or more in three matches this season, and if he’s collected 30 or more possessions on three occasions this season. It won’t hurt a player’s tally if he’s blanketed some of the toughest forwards in the competition either! Any result above an 7.5 will be determined on my own personal view of each players performance.

14. Bachar Houli - Most of Houi’s extended family signed up as members to show support towards Bachar but also lend their support to Richmond.

He chose us over James Hird’s ever-improving Bombers.

This guy WANTS to be at Tigerland.

Respect.

- He has played every game this season.
- He has driven us off halfback.
- He has kicked some bomb goals.
- He has found consistency in his game.
- He has been (in my opinion) our best pick up during the off-season thus far.
Bachar will be a big chance for the Jack Dyer medal tonight, I think Cotch will get the nod over him, but what an impact he has made this year.

Bachar Houli - 82 (A)

9.  Trent Cotchin - This AK-47 should win the Jack Dyer medal tonight. It’s so exciting to finally see Cotch get through an entire preseason and full season for the first time in his career. The break out year we were all hoping for actually happened, Cotchin has this trait about him that reminds me of Gary Ablett. Let me know what you think guys, when Cotchin runs with it, doesn’t it look similar to Ablett? His balance and sharp agility stand out as two key attributes that have improved ever more this season due to the benefits of a full pre season. Besides his brilliant ability to play the game, how impressive is his attitude? One great story I heard was earlier in the season where we lost against Sydney on their turf. Cotch missed a goal on the run and after the loss; he stayed on the ground and practiced that shot over and over. Later in the year he made the same shot under the same circumstance and celebrated with his teammates, whilst leading Richmond to victory. Our club will need to redo it’s team of the century portrait inside the ME Bank center within the next 15 years, because Cotchin will have to be included on it - that’s how good he is and will be.

Trent Cotchin (Richmond’s 2011 DUX) - 89 (A)

6. Shaun Grigg - Yet another good move by Blair Hartley, he managed to recruit us a solid player that’s contributed consistently for us. Grigg has helped improve the depth of our senior playing list, he’s an automatic starting twenty-two player and this allows some of our young players the opportunity to grind it out through VFL and earn a match - rather than get handed one due to our lack of depth. Shaun’s performed pretty well this season, but there is certainly more improvement that’s required from him and the rest of our squad if we are to launch an assault next season for that top eight spot. A criticism I had of Shaun throughout the season was his lack of defensive pressure. In the first ten rounds of the season, he actually didn’t lay one tackle in three matches, and he only laid one tackle in four other matches.  That means that Shaun play seven entire matches with a return of only four tackles from them, that’s unacceptable. Thankfully after the bye he improved big time, he laid 30 tackles in our next ten matches that’s an improvement of 11 tackles from his first ten matches. He does have a tendency to go missing in vital parts of a match, but he’s still young and hopefully he continues to improve throughout the next few seasons, we have a good player on our hands. That’s for sure.

Shaun Grigg - 72 (B)

43. Matt Dea - Sidelined with an injury throughout most of the season, it was promising to see Matt return for our last few games. He was the forgotten soldier this year but we’ve all taken notice of his potential. He has courage and skill; he just needs to find more of the pill. This grading system that I created wasn’t intended to compare one player to another, it was strictly designed to compare players to their own personal best on the field. Matt never got the opportunity to find his best, but to recover from an injury that has plagued him, and make his way into the senior team needs to be commended. His rating is a little low only because he hasn’t played enough, I really hope he gets a solid pre season and has the chance to play a chunk of our matches.

Matt Dea - 59 (D+)

Next Week

Jack Riewoldt, Daniel Jackson, Troy Taylor & Nathan Foley.

Eat THEM’Alive!

Con Bouliopoulos