Ninth. It’s almost enough to make you want to cry. It’s simultaneously a testament to some awesome performances, and a demonstration of the bitter disappointment of yet another year without finals action. Things are improving – I really only had one or two weeks where I believed that we might make the finals. How many times did I write that “we are not a good team”. But it still hurts.
With nothing to play for, and against the side that has been the most dominant by far for the past two years, it was never likely to be pretty. I saw some, but was more than happy to switch over to the ABC and while away an hour or so on lawn bowls rather than inflict any further pain on myself.
There were good signs: Raines, White, Howat and Hyde all played well in the portions I saw. Andrew Raines is already well on the way to being a champion of the club, and we have a team that will surely get better as they gain experience. There will be holes next year – it would be unlikely at best that there is another year or more left in either Gaspar or Kellaway – and you cannot build a backline on the shoulders of Joel Bowden, Andrew Raines and Ray Hall. So we need to do something about aquiring a tall defender.
To have prevented yet another 100 point defeat at least showed some semblance of pride in the jumper. And with more of our top players on the park, we’d have made the first week of finals. We won’t remember 2006 as a great year for the Richmond Football Club, but we might just remember it as the year players like Dean Polo, Andrew Raines, Danny Meyer, etc. really started something special at Tigerland. Until season 2007 – that’s it for the Richmond Reports.
West Coast Eagles 26. 17 (173)
def.
Richmond 12. 13 (85)
Remembering these guys are people with pride, families and mortgages, I’d be happy to say byebye to Ray Hall, Gaspar and Mark Chaffey: maybe it means the serious tilt at the finals takes another year or two, but these younger guys (Polo, Raines, Jackson, Thursfield) have just got so much more promise for a potent, spitting-venom and rebounding FAST backline. There’s light on the horizon, and importantly, if he lasts another year or two, perhaps Richo will get to see finals again. Disgraceful for a player THAT good to only play finals a couple of times (but then you think of Knights, Free, Weightman..)
Enjoyed your reports this year Geoff, you’ve been at once exultant, proud and full of hope, and then instantly manically-depressed and lamenting: the quintessential Richmond supporter.
light on the horizon? What was I thinking?
-hangs head-
I’m not sure that I’d throw out Ray Hall quite yet, but Chaffey’s already handed in his locker key, and Gaspar should seriously think about jumping before he’s pushed.
But you’ve gotta have hope – it makes the depression all the more intense