Thought of the week

Well well well. The Richmond coaching job has finally been decided and good luck to Damien Hartwick. Basically peoples I told ya that that would happen. The writing was on the wall, and the wall had Damien's name written all over it! The question is: What can he do at Richmond to lift that club from a bottom four team to a finals contender? I personally think that there is a lot that needs to be done at Richmond in order for them to improve. Basically for a start, it's all good and well getting a new coach one that in my opinion will help separate men from the boys but there is a lot that needs to be done off the field in order for them to move forward. It's been a mixed bag the last several years and really the Tigers haven't been the same team since 80-81 with the exception of a few finals appearances.

What needs to happen now is a reshuffling of the board. A new CEO was needed. The president and CEO need to be on the EXACT same page before working out the shit that is needed off the field, most importantly getting things settled with the board is important as a minimum. Then there is the carry over of that into the players, getting things settled in their minds. Then there is list management. There are some tough decisions that needs to be made regarding the current list. Which senior players need to be there and which ones are not required before working out which other players (mainly in the 20-25 bracket) that is not pulling their weight and either work with them give them an altermatum or get rid of them. There are some tallent in the club but realistically there is not enough of it at this stage to really get excited about but I believe that that will come in time. Do you get rid of Richo or do you keep him? I personally think he has got another year to offer, after that I'm not too sure. Heaven forbid if they get rid of Richo! He is the Richmond football club!

As I mentioned before, Richmond have had a varied time when it comes to where they finish on the ladder. Last year they finished the dreaded 9th and this year are towards the bottom of the ladder, the year before near bottom of the ladder and in 2006 they finished 9th again ahead of Geelong. In that case they should finish 9th shouldn't they next year? I think that a lot of Tigers supporters will be happy with that considering where they are now and I think under the new coach they will be around the 9th or 10th position next year if they get any further than that then they should be proud of themselves. We'll see what happens I suppose.

Another thought that I had is that the debate regarding Lance Franklin appealing the original one match ban and then getting two as a result for being found guilty. I'm not really too sure what to make of it to be honest. In real time it didn't look all that bad but the tribunal people had to consider some things in all of this. For a start. Could he have tackled Ben Cousins or avoided contact? I reckon no to both. Also Ben Cousins was knocked Out and didn't return for the rest of the game and may miss this week so that is a major part of it. If he walked away that would have lessened the blow of the demerit point system. Also the fact is that he had carry over points that contributed to him getting one week in the first place. The seriousness of concussion combined with his carry over points in my book means that one match maybe was sufficient. But on the otherhand the seriousness of the bump means that there is going to rules put into place to outrule it and take away the physicalness of the game which is crap if you ask me. Go back to the start of the year, and Nick Maxwell appealed and got off for his bump if you ask me that was more serious than Franklins. If that's the case then Lance should be successful in the appeal when he goes to the appeal board. You have got to be fair about these things, to me the Nick Maxwell incident served as a prescendent which didn't start there but had been introduced this year afterwards. If Nick Maxwell got off then maybe Franklin should have. You see how this is difficult don't you? Maybe Franklin should have taken one week and gotten on with things.

Footy's an interesting game the players create the interest!