Rightly or wrongly many fans were pumping up our finals chances little over a month ago after defeating the likes of Fremantle and Essendon, but with the dropping of games to lowly sides such as Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast, coupled with bad losses to Carlton and Essendon, our season is over.
The last three weeks have been a huge eye opener for me, as you start to second guess yourself about whether or not the club is actually heading in the right direction. You can put that lack of confidence down to the club being poor for so long I guess.
While the Carlton game was simply a disgrace from the first bounce, the last two games have been just as disappointing mainly due to the fact that we have been in a winning position only to lay down and have the opposition overrun us.
It has been a touch embarrassing to be a Tigers supporter over the past two weeks and it doesn’t help the cause when opposition supporters come up to you, give you a pat on the back and say ‘It’ll be alright mate’.
Thankfully, judging by the online Richmond forums most supporters have calmed themselves after the loss to the Suns.
However, most of the criticism directed at coach Damien Hardwick has been very unwarranted to say the least. I don’t believe you can place the blame on him and the rest of the coaching staff over the past three weeks.
Dimma knows what he is doing and has a firm plan in place to build towards our next premiership, and no amount of hiccups along the way will make him deviate from that plan. He has witnessed first-hand how the successful clubs are run from his playing days at Essendon and Port Adelaide to his assistant coaching role at Hawthorn during their premiership run.
Admittedly he is starting a long way behind those clubs here at Punt Rd, but that’s all the more reason he should be given an adequate amount of time to build the club the way he wants.
The only facet of the coaching panel I would question over the past three weeks would be the lack of changes made to the side on a week-to-week basis. Maybe I’m from the old school, but if the team has a shocker I always believe changes should be made as the poor players need to know that sub-par performances cannot be tolerated.
I also realise depth is a problem for us right now due to injuries, but there’s no reason not to bring in the likes of Ben Jakobi, Pat Contin, Dean MacDonald, Shane Tuck and Mitch Morton (if he is right to go) to see if they can do the job that the others can’t.
We’ve also got guys returning from injury such as Matt Dea and Daniel Connors who will both hopefully get their chance in a few weeks.
As far as this week goes against the Cats, all I’m looking for is a never say die attitude and a team that fights it out until the very end. If that happens then I might be able to start fully believing that this club is well on its way to its 11th premiership again.
Go Tiges!
