THE PEOPLE SPEAK - THE TIGERS GAME

[Demonland 73,140]

THE PEOPLE SPEAK - THE TIGERS GAME by the Demonland Crew

Yes, it was less than two years ago that Melbourne comfortably accounted for Richmond on the MCG after a slow start in the first of their two clashes for the year. The Demons were eyeing a place in the top 8 while the Tigers were struggling. They meet in far different circumstances on Sunday afternoon.

Pantaloons -

It will no doubt be referenced more than once in the lead-up to Sunday's Richmond-Melbourne clash at the MCG that not so long ago these two teams, after years of rebuilding, were supposedly heading in the right direction. Sadly, while Richmond continues its climb with speed and excitement of watching real-time photosynthesis, Melbourne continues to stoop to new lows, plummeting to one of the worst performances in club history against the Gold Coast on Sunday. Yet, this in itself is not the main story this week. No, the real tale lies in Melbourne supporters losing an old friend this weekend.

For the last 30 years, and throughout much of the game's history, there has been a familiar refrain to comfort Melbourne supporters in times of trouble - "At least we're not Richmond". Richmond, like the ugly best friend, has dutifully played the role of Paul Pfeiffer to many a club's Kevin Arnold over the past three decades of laughable ineptitude. Of course, when a club spends its time playing home games in the carpark of your own team's ground until 1965, it firmly sets the tone for a relationship of pity and mockery. However, with the Tigers at 4-3 and enjoying a period of relative glory, the days of condescendingly patting Richmond supporters on the head at your office/other place of work when the topic of football comes up will officially be put to rest.

You see, Melbourne currently owns the second-longest finals drought in the AFL, in front of only, you guessed it, Richmond. For every time Melbourne embarrassed itself at the draft or trade table, Richmond would up the ante by calling out the names of Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls or Anthony Banik early on draft night, or by swinging pick 19 (Callan Ward) to the Bulldogs for Jordan McMahon. Yes, Richmond have always been our friends, always happy to take some of the spotlight off our inadequacies with their own blend of farce.

When Melbourne required a step ladder to mount, Richmond always came to the party. There was 1993, when in an otherwise poor year for Melbourne, the Demons slapped Richmond by a combined 214 points in their two meetings. The following year, the Demons were only too happy to kick 27.5 in the final round in Sydney to secure a finals spot at the expense of Richmond. Four years later, with the Tigers needing a Round 22 win to make the finals, Melbourne horse-whipped them en route to a top-4 finish. Even in recent years, Melbourne has trolled the Tigers by 'losing' the services of the likes of Miller, Maric and Petterd to the yellow and black.

Alas, the days of Melbourne lampooning about and expecting our derelict, body-odour suffering carpark-dwellers to out-stink us are coming to a close. Due in part to serious errors from the Tigers at the drafting table which has led to them miraculously not botching every pick conceivable, Richmond has assembled a modest yet mildly promising list, and has a coach the players seem to listen to. Instead of turning around with the comfort of feeling the presence of another more useless than itself, Melbourne now stands alone as the guardians of ineptitude. Richmond, for all the boganic mystique about the place, is attempting to join the cool kids group, while Melbourne sits alone, picking its nose in the corner of the yard.

When the two sides take the field on Sunday, there will be no shiver of excitement as the crepe paper of the banner is destroyed. No hope of a dramatic upset. Many of the players have made perfectly clear they have no interest in doing anything but barf on the Melbourne guernsey, made patently obvious on Sunday when, despite having half the amount of ball as the Suns for much of the contest, also astonishingly had half the amount of tackles. Matchups in this one are largely irrelevant, as all Richmond will do is leave one or two players to sit on Nathan Jones every time he goes remotely near the ball, leaving nobody else to stop the likes of Martin and co from pumping the ball inside 50 all day in a blitz equal parts frenetic and depressing. Meanwhile, Melbourne players will appear confused and disinterested while leaving time for the odd chain of possession ending in the most horrific forward 50 entry ever witnessed.

We lose a friend on Sunday. A friend we thought would always stand beside us and make us appear to look acceptable in comparison. A friend who grew tired of swilling about in the mud and filth for decades on end and decided to move on to better things. No, we aren't Richmond. But today, there are worse things than Richmond.

So the Demons are faltering and find themselves in a dark place. But does anyone out there think they can win?

Demon WA -

It was only a couple of years ago when the Richmond V Melbourne game was a highlight of the season for me. The teams were matched evenly around the ground and the Frawley V JR8 battle at one end and up and coming mids like Martin and Trengove would do battle in the middle. Watts played arguably his best game of AFL a couple of years ago as a key forward against Richmond, and game where Ricky Petterd, at that stage a beacon of hope for the demons faithful, set a record for most tackles laid inside the attacking 50.

Fast forward a couple of years and the differences in form and confidence could not be greater between the two teams. Hardwick identified weaknesses in his list and has strengthened it to a point where they seem to have no gaping holes. The Demons have sacked one coach and are delaying the inevitable in sending Neeld down a similar path (in my opinion). Despite numerous opportunities to draft top line talent to the club, the Demons midfield is devoid of class and talent. This is exacerbated through the loss of Grimes and Trengove to injury and Sylvia (who generally has his best game for the year against Richmond) through suspension. Meanwhile the Class and Polish of the Richmond midfield is perhaps as good as any team in the competition, with the likes of Cotchin, Delideo, Martin, Foley and the evergreen Tuck.

They say that games are won and lost in the midfield and this will unfortunately be the case again this week.

Richmond by 48 points

Hardtack -

In what should be (not saying it WILL be) a war of attrition (pride is on its last legs), we should see Dunn go onto Martin and Jetta return to go onto Jake King. In the ensuing softening up period, both Martin and King are reported for elbows to the head and groin areas of their respective opponents and so are nullified by the weight of concern over whether they will be available to play in the following week's must win game against Essendon - that's my dream start.

The in-form VC "Judy"Garland will take on "Moaning" Jack Reiwoldt, Frawley on McGuane and because of his height, the only real match-up for Oren Stephenson can be Sellar. For the remaining defenders, Nicholson is the only one with enough pace to stay with Nahas and Terlich will need to contain Knights.

I will be rather surprised (disappointed) if Magner is not promoted off the rookie list, and if he is, he should replace either McKenzie or Bail (maybe Bail?). Blease will maybe get a recall in Sylvia's absence and I hope they somehow find a way to slot the Fitz into the line-up... although, Casey having not played last weekend won't have helped his chances.

If any of Jones to the power of two, Evans or Magner can get first hands on the ball by roving well to the ruck work of Ivan Maric, we should be a reasonable chance down forward... providing the incoming kicks aren't bombed over the head of Dawes as was the case on Sunday. Maybe Tapscott will move back to the centre in place of Bail or menthoids man McKenzie so that the Fitz can come into the forwards to add a bit of height and, hopefully, goal kicking ability.

Depending on whether these guys can show a little pride in themselves and their supporters, this game could either blow out very badly or be decided by just a few goals (4 - 6) ... still can't see us prevailing, but can only hope for four contested quarters where we don't see them standing around flat footed while their opponents run into space at will.

Unfortunately, the above are among the more optimistic views we've been getting. Others are tipping hidings in excess of 100 points.

THE GAME

Richmond v Melbourne at the MCG Sunday 19 May 2013 at 3.20pm.

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Richmond 102 wins 2 draws Melbourne 79 wins

At MCG Richmond 67 wins 1 draw Melbourne 60 wins

Since 2000 Richmond 13 wins Melbourne 9 wins

The Coaches Hardwick 2 wins Neeld 0 wins

MEDIA

TV Channel 7 Fox Sports 3 (live)

RADIO - 3AW Triple M

THE BETTING

Richmond $1.01 to win Melbourne $17.00 to win (in other words, the Dees are wasting their time turning up)

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Richmond 13.23.101 defeated Melbourne 11.12.78 at the MCG, Round 15, 2012

As usual an opposition midfield ripped the Demons apart from go to whoa. The only thing was that the Tigers couldn't kick goals if their lives depended on it and as a result, the winning margin was kept to under four goals. Stef Martin was Melbourne's only multiple goal kicker with two goals and to nobody's surprise Nathan Jones was his team's best.

THE TEAMS

RICHMOND

Backs Steven Morris Alex Rance Troy Chaplin

Half backs Chris Newman Brandon Ellis Bachar Houli

Centreline Shaun Grigg Trent Cotchin Daniel Jackson

Half forwards Brett Deledio Shane Edwards Jake King

Forwards Luke McGuane Jack Riewoldt Dustin Martin

Followers Orren Stephenson Nathan Foley Nick Vlastuin

Interchange (from) Matthew Arnot Jake Batchelor Matthew Dea Aaron Edwards Robin Nahas Tyrone Vickery Matthew White

In Matthew Arnot Trent Cotchin Matthew Dea Aaron Edwards Tyrone Vickery Matthew White

Out Chris Knights (knee) Ivan Maric (ankle) Shane Tuck (shoulder)

MELBOURNE

Backs Neville Jetta James Frawley Dean Terlich

Half backs Dan Nicholson James Sellar Colin Garland

Centreline Jack Trengove Jordie McKenzie Michael Evans

Half forwards Luke Tapscott LyndenDunn Jeremy Howe

Followers Max Gawn Chris Dawes Jimmy Toumpas

Followers Mark Jamar Matt Jones Nathan Jones

Interchange (from) Rohan Bail Aaron Davey Troy Davis Dean Kent James Magner Jake Spencer James Strauss

In Troy Davis Mark Jamar Neville Jetta James Magner Jimmy Toumpas Jack Trengove

Out Shannon Byrnes (wrist) Colin Sylvia (suspension) Jack Viney (toe)

The aftermath of the Gold Coast Suns defeat saw much soul searching and the blame for the situation was being apportioned in a number of areas while new CEO Peter Jackson was talking of the need for change to be implemented. One of the more obvious changes discussed in situations such as these was the position of the coach. Surely, he has lost the players when they produce insipid performances as those reflected in the Suns' game with its pathetic tackle count.

Players such as Colin Garland and newcomer Chris Dawes rallied to Mark Neeld's defence this week but some questioned their motives in doing so claiming their efforts were "spin". Demonlander pm24 came to their defence.

It is genuinely insulting for you to fail to give any of the the players any respect, and not even acknowledge that they may be being truthful. I find it absolutely disgusting that many on here continue just abuse, abuse and abuse, without giving the players any respect as people. It is the same reason I will NEVER abuse our own players or opposition players, even if I have a dislike for them.

For people to come out and openly suggest that first Garland, then Dawes are just flat out misrepresenting things just to toe the "club line" gives them no respect as people. And in my opinion, those who are suggesting such things, should also be given no respect. Paying a membership, and supporting a club does not given anyone a right to abuse and disrespect a person expressing their opinion.

All members, and even the players are hurting because of the performances. There may be some players hurting less than others, but to suggest that players aren't hurting again is disrespectful to the playing group as people.

Those who keep suggesting that the players are just spinning c*$p and just making excuses, I ask this question...if they didn't believe in what they were saying why would would they make such statements? Again, I'm guessing the responses would be along the lines of....to protect their own skins, etc etc etc But what would compel someone to come out and mislead the membership when they don't have to. They could sit back and say nothing. To me the players are coming out and standing up for what is happening at the club because they believe in it. I have found that people are more likely to stand up and defend something when they believe in it, as opposed to when they don't.

Why are so many on here so quick to acknowledge the way the club has stuffed up in the past, yet not patient enough for all of that poor work to be fixed. I believe this club has been in a poor state for over a decade, and I think it is unrealistic, bordering on lunacy to believe that it can be turned around in 18 months. Many have suggested that a coach like Paul Roos could fix things, to which I have suggested that Sydney were in a similar position to us in the early 90's when Barassi was brought in to fix things, then Eade took over, and led the club for 7 years (including finals appearances) before Roos took over. Sydney took about 4-5 years to dig themselves out of where they were in the early 90's and return to playing finals football. Why should we expect any different? Look at the history of other clubs who have been in similar positions to where we are at. I think you will struggle to find examples of where a club has returned to being competitive and successful within 18 months.

But back to my main point. It is simply disgusting for so many on here to simply abuse and disrespect the players and those in the club that are genuinely trying to move this club to where it needs to be. People want the club to show integrity......so how do they want that to be represented?

To me, integrity means being consistent in your words and actions, yet people are getting sick of hearing the same old message of "it's going to take time, but we're on the right path". Since Neeld took over, I have seen more consistent messages coming out of the club regarding where it is at then I have for any time in the last decade. The actions or results have not been there and there has been little evidence that the players are performing at the level intended or expected, but does that mean that the players lack integrity, or that the club lacks integrity?

The club has always said it is going to take time. It is taking time. They have clearly explained that their are standards the players are expected to meet. The players may not be consistently meeting those standards at the moment, but how many 20 - 25 year olds are always consistent in their behaviours. There are reasons that those clubs near the top of the ladder are where they are, they have a more mature and experienced group of players.

Some people are being blinded by anger, and frustration when looking at the club. Take a step back, take a rational look at the playing list (which isn't great at the moment), and think, when compared to other lists, where should this club be sitting on the ladder?

The club is sitting in 17th place and there doesn't seem to be much room for respite on the basis of current form and with crucial players including team leaders on the injured list. One thing is very clear. A repeat of last week or of the Essendon game earlier this season will be intolerable.

[hells bells 2,023]

Very funny piece Pantaloons.

I needed a chuckle.