(03-25-2017, 07:06 AM)ElwoodBlues1 link Wrote:If you watched how we approached him you would see our players tried to corral rather than tackle him, River Rat observed Gibbs lineup near Martin then duck shoved the job onto a younger player. when he should have taken the job on.
There was some push and shove with Vlastuin I think it was and our blokes all came in then left real quick when Martin arrived including Casboult...how many more examples do you need?
I cant think of one successful tackle being laid on Martin....not one....we have an undersized mid field....why?......Richmond are a non finals team and have been for a while which means the good tams are dealing with and tackling Martin fine...as Leigh Matthews said when he coached Brisbane...if it bleeds you can kill it".....
What example does it set to younger players when some senior players dont want to put it on the line.....would Luke Hodge or Jordan Lewis back off, or a Josh Kennedy(swans), or Libba..?
Opposition better???.....get used to it.???...been doing that since 1995, how about the club telling the players to harden the f#$k up and dont embarrass the Navy Blue jumper ....young blokes and Matt Wright excused..
I get it EB and i like you get frustrated watching them every week. But when the emotion subsides I keep telling myself we are rebuilding. It's a tough comp and when you throw 20 plus players out in 2 years and replace them with inexperienced unknowns toughness at the contest is a trait you won't see consistanly.
And after all our last 'tough' players we had in a while in robbo, bell and touhy were all traded out and I can't remember too many on here in tears when they left. Can't have it both ways.
We are rebuilding. We all agreed to invest in youth to trade out older players and build from the ground up.
What you asking for is for harder tougher and more commited players. Swans, hawks and GWS have them in spades. But sadly we are not them and won't be for many years to come. Yes we have had 20plus years of pain and like it or not get ready for a few more before being competitive again.
Your points are valid just not valid at our stage in a rebuild imo.