What must we do to be best?

[Deja Vu]

LOL! Richmond would be first in line because they would understand having someone like Grundy would make them unstoppable.

You don’t throw out the baby with the bath water and you don’t trade out your best asset.

[think positive]

win!

[Johnno75]

Maybe our best and experienced players (not just Grundy) can we play well when it counts most.

[bally12]

I loved Nathan Buckley as a player, and I love him as a person. As a coach I supported him for years until 2 years ago, when I could see he couldn't get the team to gel, until Longmuire arrived and got our defence organised for the first time in 7years.
Last year it was obvious in the GF that we needed to keep attacking and put the foot down. That takes courage, because our team instinctively wants to protect a lead. The GF against the Eagles was like a slow-motion car crash. Our issue as a team was exposed in plain sight.
Our issue is about psychology. About having a relentless, and insatiable desire to attack. It's about taking risks, and to hell with getting hit on the counter if we make a mistake. If a player's skills aren't up to it and he turns it over, then we turn him over. If a player can't be trained to keep up with frenetic, dynamic and explosive game style like that, then same applies. The long-distance runners like Philips and Sidey go missing in the big games where 5 explosive steps near the contest is what you need.
To have the ball means you have the advantage in that you are in control of how you put the ball to your team's advantage, and that's not to go down the line to a 50-50 where you have just given up the advantage you had.
Listen to Buckley and he constantly espouses a defence-first mentality. Automatically we are thinking negatively. Listen to Malcolm Blight and he will tell you the modern coaches that have gone down the defensive-first approach are w#ankers.

My reading of Buckley is someone that is meticulous in his planning. It wouldn't come naturally to him to champion a kamikaze all-out attacking approach that Richmond have dominated the competition with for 3 years now. What more proof do you need? Buckley will tell you there are many ways to skin a cat. We've heard it before. Unfortunately, I think Buckely's personality of being precise with this planning has rubbed off on this team. We are too static, robotic, confused, too small in the clearances, lack mongrel, think too much, and not willing to take risks. We play scared. We let sh#touse teams like Carlton scare the crap out of us because we don't want to take them on, and show them who's boss.
It follows then that our selection decisions are predictable and boring. We never go with the risky option..risky but one that could pay off. Does anyone really think Buckley would have picked Pickett to debut in the GF? No way. And yet, Richmond did debut him and got the spoils.
We had exciting players like Wells, Varcoe, Tyler Brown, waiting to make an impact, but no....we'd rather go with a 70kg Noble who was brushed aside like a little-leaguer. How Madgen could be thought of as preferable to Shhaz is muystifying. Shaz was solid all year for us, until he suddenly was out of favour. Again, a bs decision.

So what next? Sadly, I'm now in the camp that Bucks will never win a premiership for us. He was right in the doco when he said he doesn't know if he's the right man for the job. There was much made about him changing as a person, and being more empathetic and supportive of his players. Well, if we are going to challenge any time soon, he needs to change again. We need some kind of minor miracle for that I reckon.
We are the biggest supporter base in the land. We don't want to go to the footy and watch our team play rope-a-dope.
Buckley said we "were a chest beating club", but not anymore and it's for the better. Yeh that's right, it's for the better for all our haters, who love us being down, and apologetic. We need to beat our chest again on game-day at least.
Come on Pies. The least you can do is play exciting and aggressive footy. You owe it to your supporters.

[eddiesmith]

[RudeBoy]

Despite some of the hysterical and panic stricken posts I've been reading on various Nicks threads, it's worth remembering we lost a Grand final last year by less than a goal and a Prelim final by less than a goal this year. So, on any measure, we are very close to Premiership success. Clearly we have the talent, the coach and the game plan to be successful in finals.

However, our side clearly needs some tweaking. Our main problem seems to be our inability to take advantage of Grundy's ruck dominance. That suggests we need some more physicality and power around the ball. De Goey is the man to deliver that, and maybe/hopefully Beams can be the icing on the cake.

Next, once Cox is playing with good eye sight - in both eyes - then we should expect a better performance from him, with flow on effects to our whole forward line.

If we can improve in both these areas, regardless of any trading/drafting we do, then we should have reason to be optimistic about our prospects in 2020.

[watt price tully]

[tbaker]

[Lazza]

[woodys_world69]

GET RID OF THE FITNESS STAFF

pretty simple.....there was a god damn %$#^ing reason we were cup favourites at the start of the season

richmond had 1 long term injury

[neil]

We need a KPF Cox is not going to get better Miochek is only a third option
If Lynch can step up a grade then we can win but doubt he is good enough according to all the VFL reports

Cameeron is a dream we do not have the draft picks
Pattons knees are as bad as Shaz

The medical/conditioning needs looking at.

Keep Grundy JDG and Moore

Can Moore play forward? with confidence?

[Deja Vu]

[Redcraze]

[Born to Pie]

We missed, it's that simple. We missed the win, we missed simple set shots on goal. We missed the development and game time in Aish through injury, and Stephenson through stupidity, who played underdone for those reasons. We missed DeGoey, Beams, Cox and Langdon.
And we chose to give Brown the experience when the experience of Varcoe may have been telling. But the season is gone.

2020 hopefully has a fit DeGoey, Beams, Cox and Langdon. A more experienced and hopefully bigger Brown. Stephenson and Aish available for a full season. WHE gets a full pre-season and is hopefully back to his 2018 form or better. Scharenberg, IQ, Wills and Sier fit, ready and motivated to provide depth. We have a hope of all this without whatever the playing list additions happen.

What's the time on the premiership clock?

[Deja Vu]

I reckon we’re at the beginning of a sustained tilt at the Top 4 for the next few years. Can we convert those chances into cups? That’s the question.

But I don’t think we’re far off