Lord Travis

Signed a new four year deal with GWS at the beginning of the month.

Top 5 distance covered on the ground are all Richmond players. Youngest 5 players on the ground are all Richmond players. No excuses for us. It’s purely down to effort and work rate. It’s not good enough. Seeing Brayshaw miss a tackle and then just stand there while his opponent waltzes off is damning.

Battling at Casey. If he can’t get a game in this poor lineup crying out for speed, then he’s set to be delisted you’d think.

I attended Geelong vs Hawthorn yesterday courtesy of the corporate box. Though I drank a fair bit, here's my observations and thoughts: - We beat both these teams in finals only 7-8 games ago. Both these teams are a mile ahead of us now. There were rule changes over summer that we have not adapted to, where as these clubs have. We beat Geelong by 5 goals, and 4 games later they belted us by 80 points. WTF was the club doing over summer to allow a 100+ point turn around happen?! DEFENSIVELY - Both usually setup to play one on one, no more zone [censored]. They also keep at least one player back in their defensive 50, or at least closest to goals by a fair way. They will not let their deepest player get sucked up the ground to the contest. We do not do this, and still play a zone defence. Our zone defence plays far too high, getting sucked up the ground and means when the opposition in the ball and move forward they have a paddock of space to utilise and our defenders are placed under enormous pressure. - With the one on ones, that means there's less big pack situations. When there is a pack though, both teams will always have a player stay down for the crumb, as the likelihood of a big pack mark is low. For whatever reason, our players defy logic and all fly for the same ball with no-one waiting down. You'd think it's common sense not to do this, but apparently not! - When a team loses possession and the oppositions free player gets the ball out on the wing, both teams were happy to concede this and instead their midfielders in the corridor push back harder to flood the backline with an extra one or two players. While the ball carrier is then under little pressure, their kick inside 50 rarely hits a target as they are outnumbered. Our mids have been abysmal in pushing back to provide defensive support. This is purely down to lack of effort and foot speed. - Both teams utilise the new kick in rules after a behind. They are happy to run the extra distance they are now given and move the ball quickly all the way to the middle of the ground/wing in one kick. If these positions are too crowded, they will run the ball out with less pressure as the man on the mark is pushed further away from the kicker under the new rules, and a teammate will block them anyway to allow the kicker to sometimes run nearly all the way to the 50 metre arc unopposed. Sicily did this multiple times and was super effective yesterday. - Our team has not adapted to the new kick in rules. We rarely run the extra distance and utilise the additional space. We kick it the same flank over and over hoping Max will mark it (which he rarely has this year). Teams know we do this and now crowd that flank. When this happens, we chip to the point and then stop waiting for options. We never run the ball out, and we never try kicking long to a different spot. What we are doing with kick ins is not working, and we have not adapted. OFFENSIVELY - 6-6-6 means that forward lines are crowded. All this rule has done is shift the congestion from the middle of the ground to the forward lines, essentially creating an artificial flood of sorts. When a team wins a centre clearance and streams forward, they either have a shot from outside 50 or kick it to a pack of 6-12 players. It's the reason that scoring is the lowest it's been in over a decade. Due to the amount of players crowding forward lines, big forward aren't able to marks the ball this year and small forwards are excelling as they're having more opportunity to crumb artificially created packs. - With that in mind, both teams have several smaller forwards with pace and use these players as their main scoring avenues. Geelong had Ablett, Rohan, Miers, Dalhaus etc. all doing damage. All of them kicked goals, with Ablett and Rohan kicking 3-4 goals each. They also all rotated up the ground and found ball. Miers and Dalhaus in particular played great linking roles, utilising their pace to break lines across the wing and through the corridor. It didn't work for the Hawks yesterday due to Geelongs brilliant defending, but they had Puopolo, Wingard, Bruest and others down there. Those three players can all kick bags, and could have if the delivery was a tad better and they'd kicked straighter (Bruest and Wingard both missed multiple shots and only registered behinds). - Our small forwards are slow, do not hit the scoreboard and rarely help to link up play e.g. Spargo has not scored AT ALL from 4 games now, and is averaging 9 disposals and less than 1 tackle a game. He must be the least effective player in the AFL at present. We have bugger all options, and it's why most of us are now screaming out for Garlett to return, as he'll likely thrive in the current AFL gamestyle. It frustrates the hell out of me seeing us pass on guys like Petrucelle at the draft, then watching them use their speed and have an impact at other clubs. - Both teams have big blokes who can take a contested mark. Roughead, Hawkins, Rat, Gunston, Lewis, Blicavs etc. all took strong marks yesterday. Our big blokes, though receiving poor delivery, are not marking the ball at all. Last year we were one of the best contested marking teams with TMac and Gawn marking anything that came their way. This year we are ranked second last in the league for contested marks. When our gamestyle is the bomb the ball into 50, not marking it and then having no speedy crumber around is a recipe for disaster. This alone is the reason why we will finish bottom four this year. It's a fatally flawed plan, and blame rests with the coaches for not addressing it and coming up with alternatives. SPEED - It's obvious, but our foot speed is currently amongst the worst in the league. It's pure ratshit. Geelong is full of old blokes on the cusp of retirement, yet they currently run rings around us. Hawthorn are the same, with Smith, Poppy, Bruest, Impey, Scully, Worpel, Wingard etc providing good run and speed. Our team is lacking speed all across the park, but particular through the midfield and up forward. We should seriously consider trading one of our big bodied midfield types (Petracca?) to secure a good running outside-leaning midfielder in the Ed Langdon mould. It frustrates me seeing other clubs land players like Treloar and Shiel while we twiddle our thumbs. We need to offer up big and land Coniglio as a free agent. Until we fix our speed issue, we will continue to get burnt on the outside by most teams and continue on a road to nowhere. EXCUSE THE LONG POST. NEEDED TO VENT!

I’m attending this match today sitting in a corporate box. Should be a good experience watching two arch rivals play some quality football and not have to tear my hair out!

This is usually my favorite home and away game to attend each year. But I’m probably not going this year. Our poor performance mixed with the rubbish quality of games at present, combined with the trains being offline still makes this a very hard sell to drag myself to.

This match will be the final nail in the coffin for our 2019 season. I expect Richmond to win not because they are any good, but because we are rubbish. The coaching staff have [censored] up this year. They’ve failed to adapt to the rule changes and gamestyle changes of the modern game. They have a talented list that they cannot get to perform. There’s not way we’re a bottom 2-3 team. We’re not playing finals this year, but I expect the coaches to be able to turn our form around for a good chunk of the season at least. I want to see Garlett in. He’s the highest scoring goal kicker on our list and would provide a spark, even if he’s inconsistent. We lack speed and legitimate goal scoring options, and he’s both. Get him in.

[censored] this club. Pathetic.

0 stats in the first quarter. Not good enough. Needs to step up big time to hold his place.

Not almost, would be. We’d then be 1-5 and would likely need to go 13-3 from there. Today is a must win game. Wake up Demons!

I too believe he’s more of a natural midfielder, as that’s where he excelled as a junior and he’s definitely not a natural crumber up forward. I rate his smarts as a footballer, but he’s been very poor this year. So far this season he’s averaging: 9 disposals 0 goals 0 behinds 0.5 tackles 1 goal assist You cannot carry a small forward who lays a one tackle every second match and does not score at all. He needs to find form as currently on output he’s not best 22.

Pies forward line is so dangerous. It makes me jealous how well they time their leads into space, always manage to find space and overlap. They don’t lead into each other’s path or fly for the same balls as often as other teams forwards. Even battlers like Mihocek manage to be productive. Movie forwardline coaches need to study this and make changes!

It’s been the worst quality footy in my lifetime. Not a single quality or memorable game. The new rules and over-officiating by the umpires has destroyed the game.

Umpire literally blocked Lachie Neale from the ball coming to him and directly cost them a goal. Absolutely horrible and unjust. Surely something has to be done?!

Spargo is still chasing Jeffys dust. Spargo is small, but he’s got poor-average pace and doesn’t hit the scoreboard. He’s more of a natural midfielder and isn’t suited to the small forward role. We need Jeff in the team. He’s the most proven goal kicker on our list and offers elite speed.

Too old for us. Now we’re talking. A midfielder with pace and versatility. Would be a good fit for our current midfield. I still think we should throw everything possible at Coniglio as a free agent. He’s an elite midfielder with all the attributes we require. We need to land talent through free agency and stop wasting high draft picks.

666 was intended to create space, increase goal scoring and therefore have more ads to make money from. Instead it has brought scoring down, with Round 1 being the lowest score round of football in nearly 40 years. 666 is a blight on the game. This year has produced the worst quality football in my lifetime, with not a single memorable or high quality game so far. Expanding 666 would essentially turn the game into soccer. They need to undo all the new rules they implemented this year. They [censored] up and it’s lead to [censored] football. Pathetic foresight by the AFL.

Loved Hunts two games up forward. Doesn’t get a heap of it, but he’s so damaging with his pressure and hits the scoreboard. Ticks all the boxes needed for the small/medium forward type player. He and Petracca really stood up tonight.

JOOOOONNNNEEEESSSSS

Our intensity is gone. Our midfield is shot. Our season is on a knifes edge here.

Nah, haven’t seen the real Jack for nearly three years now.

Hope not. We need Salem distributing the ball off half back/wing. He’s a legitimately poor defender, and Heeney has been brilliant up forward and would kick a bag. Look at the team lining up is not very reassuring. This looks like season-ending stuff right here. How disappointing!

Expecting Sydney to win by about 20 points. Only 20 points as they have trouble scoring in general, just not as much trouble as us!

And lay zero tackles again? The sooner Garlett returns the better.

If that’s the case, then we just re-signed Mark Neeld 2.0 for another four years! Uh-oh!