With the opening round of the NAB Cup completed for 2012, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what I have learned so far after the first set of games.

1) You can’t take much out of the “20/20” format
It’s difficult enough to gauge a team’s improvement or form change at the best of times during the pre-season, but with the shortened games in round 1 of the NAB Cup it in essence becomes a glorified training session.

While I have no problem with the format itself, I think at times football followers can get a little carried away with the results that come from these games. Not seeing any AFL action for almost four months will do that to you though!

However, one thing we can take out of these games is seeing the new kids from each club out there putting their skills to the test in an AFL environment, as no doubt many Richmond fans saw when the likes of Brandon Ellis, Todd Elton and Matthew Arnot ran out for the first time two weeks ago.

2) We should only trial rules that have a good chance of being implemented
With the NAB Cup comes a number of interesting rule changes, which are ‘trialled’ to see if they have a place in our game for the season proper. For the most part they are justified but one rule change for the pre-season which I still cannot get my head around is the rule that pays a free kick against the player who touches the ball last before it heads over the boundary line.

Now yes, there are exceptions (a spoil, smother etc) but if this rule ever made it into the premiership season you would have to start questioning those in charge of our great game. I’d like to think that there is no chance of that ever happening, so why bother trialling it? Any rule which promotes watching an opposition disposal slowly trickle over the line as opposed to going and winning the football is a negative in my eyes.

Finally, the set up for the video review system for goal-line decisions is seriously flawed. There were a number of instances during just the last weekend of the NAB Cup where the umpires went to the video to review a shot on goal, only for the same answer to keep coming back, inconclusive.

This is of course because the camera angles at the ground for goal-line decisions are totally useless. If there’s no camera right on the goal-line (you could even lodge one in a goal post), then it makes it almost impossible to make heads or tail of an in dispute decision. In my opinion you either have to go the whole way with video review, or scrap it all together. There’s no room in our game for this type of inconsistency.

3) Richmond have recruited well in positions that were lacking in 2011
Before you say it, yes I know this somewhat contradicts my first point I mentioned earlier, but I feel there’s a lot to like about our recruits this season, in particular the two Maric’s, Ivan and Addam. It’s no secret that a lot of Richmond’s troubles last season centred around being monstered at the stoppages by opposition big men, which is why the club went hard at ex-Crow ruckman Ivan Maric during the off-season.

While the mullet he wears is a thing of beauty, so to is his ruckwork and genuine enthusiasm for the contest which is what we have missed for some time now. His competitiveness both in the air and on the ground alone should see us improve in this vital area of the field.

Addam Maric was a real pleasant surprise for me as well. Once I heard he was training with us during the off-season I was hoping we would throw the talented junior and ex-Demon a lifeline, which is exactly what we did. Maric is under no illusions that this is probably as good a chance as he will get at cracking the big time and he certainly got off on the right foot in his first hitout. While Jake King has been quite serviceable as a small forward, he is generally seen as a defensive minded player who can pressure and hassle his opponents into making mistakes from the backline. The area in which Maric differs is that he is a pure footballer with smart goal sense and very clean disposal. Consistency has been his problem in the past but if he can rectify that his recruitment may well end up going down the same path as Bachar Houli’s just a year ago.

This weekend full-length practice matches are back in full swing with the Tigers travelling over to Perth to face Fremantle who have selected a strong line-up. With Richmond resting a number of core players it will be interesting to see who of the younger brigade will step up and play well.

Go Tiges!
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