Round 6 North Melbourne Vs Richmond - Saturday 9th May - Blundstone Arena

[RaisyDaisy]

Coaches cop so much flack because they are the easiest target

Malthouse and Eade are gun coaches and their teams are going crap, and Richmond is the same

None of us know how they players react to Dimma's leadership, so I'm not saying he is completely innocent, but it's the players who go out and play each week, and so many teams/players over the years have got away unscathed while the coach cops it all

Tigers need to unite and harden up. And supporters/media need to think their heads, not their hearts, and realise that certain "big name club" like Richmond and Carlton are crap because their lists are poor, not their coaches

[Mat0369]

Although in Carlton's case the coach has come in and gotten rid of talented players while replacing them with crap and having an outdated game plan that doesn't work sapping the confidence of the players that they do have. It also comes down to player development, you can say the list is poor but if the players haven't improved and either stagnated or regressed since you have been in charge then the coaching staff and player development have to take some responsibility.

Obviously in some cases the players do have to be looked at, but you look at a team like Melbourne and what Roos and his staff have done with what many considered the basket case list in the comp. He has had guys like Jetta, Pedersen and Dunn and then grabbed a few other guys like Cross, Jeffy and a few others to play some good competent footy.

Richmond on the other hand seem to be following that path where those top and middle tier players are stagnating. They have their own VFL team to develop their players the way they want. A lot of it can come down to recruiting and the fact they have gone mature age instead of bringing in young guys. It is all well and good to grab some of those mature players as rookie list picks (like Lambert for example) but if you are trying to top up when the foundations are starting to fall you are destined for failure.