[Picture: Craig Borrow, News Ltd]
What the hell is going on at Richmond? Their coach is not the worst ever. The playing list is respectable, with the bonuses of a 34-year-old star getting a second wind, and a Brownlow-medal winner who has just fallen in their lap (since the other 15 clubs took a step backwards due to his age, dodgy hamstrings and drug issues).
But the results are just pathetic. They are underperforming massively. They have put it together here and there for a few quarters in the four games so far, but lost them all and deserved to.
I am of the mind that Terry Wallace should stand down as soon as possible. I honestly don't think it matters who takes over. I'm serious. It really doesn't matter. If they got a new coach and then came out straight away and played like champions, it would only make me despise the players even more. Wallace has been there nearly five years, this is his list, and it's riddled with cheats and bludgers. He's not going to be able to do anything in the next five months that he has failed to do in five years. So Terry should do the right thing and clear out his desk.
I have a lot of seething regrets about things that have happened, but it's not going to change anything to revisit those. So I will try to workshop some solutions.
The following are on the market for smugly underperforming regularly
Nathan Brown
Jordan McMahon
Jay Schulz
Cleve Hughes
The following are on the market for being not up to scratch due to skill limitations and/or age (neither of which are their fault)
Jake King
Jarrad Oakley Nicholls
Shane Edwards
Kayne Pettifer
Kane Johnson
Troy Simmonds
Adam Pattison
The fans have been howling for Richard Tambling to be ditched for years, but I would actually persist with him. Deledio is another smug underachiever, but his potential is such we just must hang onto him. Also in the "giving us nothing but need to be patient" category is Mark Coughlan - surely one day he'll be fit?
Polak and Cousins are special cases. The club owes them a duty of care for the rest of the season and needs to see if they want to continue in 2010. There is certainly lots of room on the list once the 11 above have shot through.
Richo and Joel Bowden have been great servants of the club through awful times. They have their knockers but I say they've earned the right to play on as long as they wish. The rest of the older players (Brown, Johnson, Simmonds) have got to go to effect change. For the rest of the season, give the next tier of players a chance to show by their deeds if they are really good enough to represent the club in the good times that we hope are ahead. They are certainly good enough to get a game ahead of some of the rabble that has been out on the field this season.
Is it really too much to ask that the Tigers field 22 players who really want to do their best?
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