With the Blues ascending to Finals Footy in 2009, a quick look back at the last decade shows:

- complete mismanagement
- poor list planning
- internal dissension & infighting
- salary cap penalties
- at each other's throats
- a mass of unhappy time at the bottom of the ladder....

BUT

- in 2001, both Carlton and Richmond played in their most recent finals matches.

With Carlton having gone through all of that, but now back on the up, its clear to me that Richmond are the worst Club in the competition and clearly the worst team of this decade, notwithstanding our own difficulties. In fact in spite of those difficulties we've managed to get ourselves off the ground and can now rub the colelctive noses of Richmond fans in the steaming pile of cow manure quite rightfully dumped on their door step all those years ago.

Whilst many here would recognise Richmond as a basket case and think nothing of the above statement, I'm happy that despite all that has happened to us we still can have a laugh at the sods sitting on the bottom of the ladder whilst we sit back and watch us in the finals.

Thank God for Richmond.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

But they have Cousins....

A decent post Ando. It does really show how bad they have been considering the restrictions imposed by the AFL on us and our lack of finances.
They do have the box seat.

Ando, sorry, but I have to pick you on this one mate.







































It was chicken manure, not cow dung.

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and JUDD

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But they're still in the box seat

To be fair to Richmond, they may be languishing down the bottom now (and for some time) - but
the truth is that they are struggling now because they had a few 'meh' seasons that saw them not
making the finals, but not finishing low enough to get high enough draft picks/priority picks.

The reason we are where we are is because we won quite a few wooden spoons.

It hurts but it's true.


That said, Richmond are screwed and will be stuck down the bottom for another 3-5 years...
especially with the GC17 and WS teams whoring up the draft now.

Why?

Because Wallace tried what Pagan did when he came to the Blues - top up an ordinary list with
recycled players and snagging one or two 'marquee' players (Brown, Cousins, etc.)... who didn't
end up helping them one iota.


I've got big wraps for Melbourne because they realise they are struggling, but they began turfing the
deadwood and older players a few years ago and have stuck with a youth policy. They will be up a lot
sooner than Richmond.

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Thay are so pathetic I feel sorry for them.

Which part of passing on Franklin and Roughead did you miss? Do you want me to list all the players that they got from other clubs as well with those shifty payment deals they set up?

No! you cant feel sorry for them after they stole Judd and Knobel from us

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Do you honestly think Franklin and Roughead would make that much of a difference?!

Obviously you missed this part of my post:



As for the 'shifty payment deals', that has little to do with their onfield position, after all - how much of an impact has it made to their list.

Nathan Brown. That's the only decent player I can think of. He had an impact until he screwed his leg, to be honest drafting players
like him probably helped to make them the ordinary team they are now by winning them a few more meaningless games way back when...

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Since 2002 they've finished 14th, 13th, 16th, 12th, 9th , 16th, 9th and 15th.

In successive years, they finished in the bottom five and traded the subsequent top five picks for Kane Johnson and Nathan Brown... Then came 2004 ... then they drafted Jarred Oakley-Nichols ... then they traded pick 8 for Polak... then they were in the box seat ... Last year they did alright with Vickery and Post, but you're kidding yourself if you think they didn't have the opportunity to do better.

@#$%&! Richmond.

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I'm not saying they could have done better.

When did I say that exactly?!?

I'm saying they should have done worse...

Recruiting hacks and trying to patch up their side with players (in the cap or otherwise ) they
have screwed themselves over by not going through a few years at rock bottom to get priority picks...

2002: 7 wins. (on 4 wins in Round 18 - only Carlton and St Kilda were below them!!)
2003: 7 wins.
2004: 4 wins.
2005: 10 wins.
2006: 11 wins.
2007: 3 wins, 1 draw.
2008: 11 wins.
2009: 5 wins, 1 draw.

They may have traded them away anyway, but if it weren't for those years they would have
have a few priority picks there.

5 out of 8 years with under 7 wins.

No finals appearances.

Yeah they are shit, like us they can blame a coach who was more interested in winning
games to keep his job rather than doing the right thing by the club.

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Now if you put them in and took Tambling and Deledio out I would say Richmond would be an 80 goal better side for the season.
The players they traded for were wanted by their clubs and Richmond paid big money to get them, Brown, Holland, Simmonds, McMahon etc. Most of the players Pagan got were pretty much unwanted by their clubs and were not lured across by money. Stevens was an exception but we got him more by good luck than good management.

Their percentage would still only be 94% or lower...

And I could promise you they wouldn't finish higher than 9th...

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I haven't bothered to give the specific reasons of Richmond's continued cellar dwelling a second thought.

Simple facts are that they are now the team in the AFL with the longest finals drought, given no finals since 2001. They've moved up and down from 16th to 9th with frightening regularity, have no system, routinely waste picks etc. but with no other reason for their weaknesses but incompetence. I can understand Tigers fans going mental at their team as their plan has just failed spectacularly each time.

And Knights is still a prick for hurting Kouta's knee.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club