2010 AFL Preview: Richmond

Before the opening bounce, Best Off Ground is taking a trip around the country to look at all 16 clubs with its 2010 AFL Previews. Next up is Richmond.

Last year: 5-16-1, 15th
Best and Fairest: Brett Deledio

Additions: Mitch Farmer
Losses: Matthew Richardson, Joel Bowden, Kane Johnson, Nathan Brown, Mark Coughlan, Kayne Pettifer, Andrew Raines, Jay Shulz, Cleve Hughes, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Adam Pattison
Draftees to keep an eye on: Dustin Martin (pick 3), Ben Griffiths (19), David Astbury (35), Troy Taylor (51)

"Sometimes I reckon you can take shortcuts to get to where you need to go. I reckon a lot of coaches come into this industry and have a three-year or a five-year plan. The strength of the coach, I reckon, is to stick to that plan. We'll be sticking to the plan."

-New coach Damien Hardwick, taking the club in a new direction

Last year did not go to plan for the Tigers. Going into the season full of expectation and surrounded by hype, they quickly faltered and endured another year in the bottom four.

Since then, new coach Damien Hardwick has swept into Punt Road armed with a Hawthorn-esque broom. He’s cleaned out the over-30s. He’s cleaned out fringe players. He’s even trying to clean out the club’s culture which has failed to bring premiership success in 30 years.

It’s a big job, and Hardwick has a long-term view on how to get it done. But what does that mean for 2010?

It means results aren’t going to be at the height of importance. It means a lot of games given to young guys that will still have plenty of development ahead of them. It means – more likely than not – another year down the lower end of the ladder.

But hey, it isn’t all doom and gloom for the Tigers.

A host of young players emerged last year, like Alex Rance, Robin Nahas, Jayden Post and Tyrone Vickery. Others were able to start delivering on their potential, like forwards Mitch Morton and Jack Riewoldt.

Add to that list Trent Cotchin – the gun 19 year-old midfielder who missed half of the year through injury – and Hardwick’s commitment to youth looks like it could pay off instantly.

The Tigers are still reasonably strong in the middle of the ground, with the experienced Ben Cousins and best and fairest winner Brett Deledio at the top of the pack. Richard Tambling taking his game to the next level last year also helps.

The backline, meanwhile, doesn’t fill you with a lot of confidence. There’s a lot of young and inexperienced talent there, but it will take time to nurture that talent. The Tigers conceded the most points of all teams last season, and it could happen again.

Up forward, with Matthew Richardson now retired, the “kick it to Richo” strategy is no longer an option. The likes of Morton and Riewoldt will be important, but more will also be needed from the smaller forwards.

Retirements have hit Richmond all over the ground, and the void they leave will have to be filled by kids. Knowing Hardwick’s history, a lot of time will be given to youngsters.

For that reason, significant improvement this year will be hard to come by.

Prediction: 14th-16th

Premiership: $81 (=13th)
Top 8: $5.50 (=13th)
Wooden Spoon: $3.75 (1st)

Source: TAB Sportsbet

What the draft brought the Tigers, Dustin Martin.

Round 1: v Carlton, MCG, Ten
Round 2: v Western Bulldogs, MCG, Fox
Round 3: v Sydney Swans, SCG, Fox
Round 4: v Melbourne, MCG, Fox
Round 5: v Fremantle, Subiaco, Fox

2010 AFL Preview: Melbourne

Before the opening bounce, Best Off Ground is taking a trip around the country to look at all 16 clubs with its 2010 AFL Previews. First up is Melbourne.

Last year: 4-18, 16th
Best and Fairest: Aaron Davey

Additions: Joel Macdonald
Losses: Brock McLean, Russell Robertson, Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan, Simon Buckley, Shane Valenti, John Meesen
Draftees to keep an eye on: Tom Scully (pick 1), Jack Trengove (2), Jordan Gysberts (11), Luke Tapscott (18), Max Gawn (34), Jack Fitzpatrick (50)

"It's certainly not another rebuilding year, it's time to start winning games. We haven't set benchmarks or goals about how many games we're going to win. But I've got a feeling that we're going to surprise teams and we are going to get some more wins on the board."

-Senior player Brad Green, talking up the new season

The Dees have claimed the wooden spoon the past two years. On both occasions they did it with four or less wins, meaning – aside from the fact they really weren’t any good – the club landed a priority pick during the off-season.

But is this the year thing’s will change? Is this the year claims of “tanking” and “not developing a winning culture” will be put to rest?

Thankfully for Melbourne fans, it seems so. The wheels will really have to fall off for the club to finish last again.

Yes, they’ve lost Brock McLean to Carlton. That is a blow. But the time for the young talent to start stepping up is now.

Last season, it was second-year players Cale Morton and Jack Grimes, as well as the third-year key defender James Frawley, that began that process.

This season, the spark could come from any number of the side’s nine 2009 debutants. And there’ll be plenty of new debutants taking the field as well.

Among those, you’d expect, will be top two draft picks, Tom Scully and Jack Trengove.

Those two, along with Morton, paint a bright picture of the future of the Dees’ midfield. They might not be dominant in the middle just yet, but things should only improve from here.

In defence, with guys like Colin Garland, Frawley, Grimes – all young – and Jared Rivers – in his mid-20s – things stack up a bit better.

Last season’s biggest losing margin was 66 points, compared to the seven losses of more than 70 points they copped a year earlier. The backs are doing their job.

Up forward, right now things don't look too good. There really isn’t too much quality running around. The hope for 2010 will be that young talent like Liam Jurrah and Jack Watts can show progress.

Of the older brigade, Aaron Davey will be coming off a brilliant year in which he successfully moved into more of a midfield role. Colin Sylvia was another to show improvement.

On the whole, however, the Dees are developing all over the ground.

So whilst a better year than 2009 should be expected, a sudden rise to top eight contention shouldn’t.

Prediction: 12th-15th

Premiership: $151 (16th)
Top 8: $6.50 (16th)
Wooden spoon: $4 (=2nd)

Source: TAB Sportsbet

Tom Scully gives us a taste of what we're in for.

Round 1: v Hawthorn, MCG, Fox
Round 2: v Collingwood, MCG, Fox
Round 3: v Adelaide, MCG, Fox
Round 4: v Richmond, MCG, Fox
Round 5: v Brisbane Lions, MCG, Fox

There are other things Twenty20 can teach NBL

A family of four can go see the Victorian Bushrangers for $25. That's one dollar less than the cost of the cheapest single adult ticket to see the Melbourne Tigers.

The Tigers' cheapest family ticket will set you back - wait for it - $91.

Don't believe it? See for yourself.

Now, look at those prices and tell me which team competes in that hot new competition everyone wants to be seen at, and which one competes in the NBL.

I don't get a lot of satisfaction out of pointing out stuff like this. But I love my basketball and living without a team for a whole season - and most likely another one yet if early indications are anything to go by - does things to my young mind.

I start to wonder what it would be like to live in a world where broadcasters like One HD and sponsors like Foot Locker, Nike et al would feel more comfortable with aligning themselves with the NBL rather than starting their own domestic competition instead.

But back on topic, it must be said that ticket prices aren't the only issue at hand.

A few nights back I enjoyed a rare night with an Austar remote in hand. I was channel-surfing between a Twenty20 Big Bash game at the Gabba and an NBL game in Perth.

There was a difference between the two that really irked me. It was the music.

At the Gabba, they were pumping out all the latest tunes. You know, Ke$ha and La Roux and David Guetta and all that crap the kiddies dig these days.

At Perth, they did whip out a little bit of that stuff. But only when the cheerleaders were out. (How family friendly, right?)

The overwhelming majority of the playlist was stuff that was seemingly popular before I was even born. It was very much like that 101 80s Hits CD that was going around last year.

Just who is that music going to drag in to the arena?

Seriously, I really want to know the answer to that.

With all the talk of the new Foot Locker Elite Classic High Stakes Hoops - is there a shorter way to say that? - being modelled on Twenty20, one hopes that influence extends beyond new rule gimmicks, and that it filters back to our main domestic competition.

There's a lot that the NBL, the Elite Classic and basketball at the elite level in general can learn from Twenty20 cricket.

Let's hope the lessons can be heeded.

What if Melbourne Heart can't pull a crowd?

Around this time last year I wrote a particularly rosy-sounding article about the prospect of Melbourne having a second A-League team. (And, if you don't mind me saying, it was one of the most creative-sounding articles I've ever written, so please click on the link if you haven't already read it.)

A year on, the whole idea behind the introduction of Melbourne Heart (if that is their real name) still seems pretty solid.

Some might question the timing, but what other option is there? Wait until Melbourne Victory grow even more and leave even less room for a competitor to be introduced?

Some might question why another Melbourne team got the nod against others, but - as I discovered this week road-tripping up to Cairns - there are a couple of good reasons behind that.

At several stops throughout the beautiful state of Queensland, I picked up a copy of the Courier Mail, the major daily paper of Brisbane. Inside was a similar level of coverage to the code formerly known as soccer than what's offered down here in the Herald Sun.

But there was a key difference. A lot of that coverage was about the A-League, as opposed to stories about how Aussies are doing abroad, or what Cristiano Ronaldo is up to.

They ran stories on North Queensland Fury, they ran stories on Gold Coast United, they ran stories on Brisbane Roar.

They previewed the entire weekend's matches, as opposed to the Herald Sun's usual token who-Victory-are-playing-this-week with a paragraph on the "player to watch" from each team.

More teams equals more headlines. It's a simple equation.

Not that headlines are the be-all and end-all, of course. But a big driving force behind the "code wars" going on at the moment is the desire to simply have a "presence".

The AFL certainly doesn't want to be left behind in New South Wales and Queensland, that's what won over the 16 club presidents in regards to the expansion issue.

The A-League shouldn't want to be left behind in Victoria. Two Melbourne teams would go a long way toward boosting the league's presence.

Finally, some might question where Melbourne Heart will get its fans from. A year ago, I acknowledged this was an issue but that it was not impossible to overcome.

After all, with the right moves being made, it's hard to see Heart doing any worse crowd-wise than the Gold Coast at the moment, or some of the original teams in their first season for that matter.

What's wrong with an expansion team averaging close to or perhaps even around 10,000 supporters per game?

Then, on the way home from my road trip, it hit me. I was on the train passing Hisense Arena when it happened. I was surprised it hadn't occurred to me earlier.

When you're playing out of a venue controlled by the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust that holds 30,000 people - as Heart will be - there is something decidedly wrong with averaging close to or around 10,000 supporters.

Somebody has to foot the rental bill.

Hisense Arena has killed an NBL team or two (the Victoria Titans-turned-Giants) with its high rental costs. It made another (the South Dragons) bleed millions in its formative years and forced the only remaining Melbourne side (the Tigers) to the 3,500-seat State Netball and Hockey Centre shortly after the place opened.

During the Dragons time in the NBL, rental costs were bemoaned by management and fans alike. Although no figure was ever officially uttered, it seemed as though without an average of 4,000 or more, the venue was simply unviable over consecutive seasons.

Hisense Arena's capacity is around 10,000.

The new "bubble dome" will have a capacity around 30,000.

If the MOPT keep their track record - and it's hard to see why they wouldn't - Melbourne Heart would need to fill about 40% of the venue on average. That's 12,000 fans.

Only three A-League teams pulled those crowds in their first season.

It will be interesting to see what would happen if Heart fall well below that mark. Basketball never got any concessions, and as a result they were - and still are - in need of a more suitable venue. Something that's not too small and not too big.

With Olympic Park Stadium soon to be out of the picture, where is there for Melbourne Heart to run to when things go bad?

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Hopefully we don't get the same stadium-related madness Clive Palmer dumped on the Gold Coast this season.

That would be the last thing the A-League wants.

Now's not the time to look down on Dragons

As a South Dragons fan, there's one thing that gets on my nerves more than anything else about the fact the club will be spending a year – at best – in exile, with the very real possibly of never returning.

It has nothing to do with Mark Cowan and how the club has handled things.

It has nothing to do with Seamus McPeake and how the Melbourne Tigers have 'dogged' their rivals once again.

It has nothing to do with (pre-Larry Sengstock) Basketball Australia and how their failure to deliver on promises forced both clubs into rebellion in the first place.

It has nothing to do with (Larry Sengstock-led) Basketball Australia and how, according to Cowan, the Dragons didn’t get any of the information – if it even existed – that was used to force the Tigers’ hand.

Rather, it is the knowledge that were the South Dragons introduced today, they would thrive.

The NBL of late 2005 – when Cowan obtained the license of the old Victoria Giants – was not ready for the vision of him and his team. Back then, the concept of reform wasn't taken anywhere near as seriously as it should've been.

The NBL was a league where clubs had to spend more money than they should to have a genuine shot at winning the championship. This was a practice that the Dragons, from the outside looking in, were reluctant to partake in.

Sure, they were big spenders. But it seemed that they’d rather get stuck into promoting their games, putting on a show to gather return visits and, more importantly, set a new benchmark for the rest of the league to follow.

You know, like Melbourne Victory did with the A-League.

But the difference between the two clubs was the environment around them. Victory’s opponents were bound by a salary cap; the Dragons’ opponents were bound by a salary cap that wasn’t policed.

Some of those opponents, for obvious reasons, weren’t profitable. And when their owners ran out of money – or, in the case of the Sydney Kings and their infamous owner Tim Johnston, out of the country – no investor wanted to touch the damn clubs.

At the same time, the Dragons languished down the bottom half of the ladder, accumulating an embarrassing number of losses. The lack of success was hurting the club.

Responsibility was eventually thrown out the window, with the Dragons belatedly joining the group of clubs with suspiciously ‘stacked’ rosters. It won them a championship from finishing last place just a season earlier.

But it was a sad consequence of how the ‘old NBL’ operated.

Any league that forces clubs to ‘sell out’ to win a championship has a serious problem. Clubs shouldn’t have to compromise on what’s best for the game just to taste success.

Thankfully, it’s all in the past.

Despite some concerns that the previous set-up was to remain, recent reports suggest there will, in fact, be a policed salary cap in the ‘new NBL’.

The clubs in the league are more committed to reform than ever, even if it will be stagnated over another thrown-together season.

With a level playing field in place and other clubs committed, the obstacles that held back the Dragons in their initial years are far less evident. The league is ready for a benchmark-setting, Dragons-like club to step in and lead the way.

You know, like Melbourne Victory did with the A-League.

Unfortunately, it seems the opposite is happening. Instead, the Dragons are being looked down on as traitors, as part of the old days where owners controlled the game and drove their own agendas.

In a way, it’s true. That does reflect how the club acted, even though my personal opinion is that BA have more to answer for in that little saga, but to only look at their recent history is to ignore all the good they had been doing for the game.

What really gets me riled is that the same people who have been looking down on the Dragons – and even though I love his work, I am thinking of Boti Nagy as I write this – are now welcoming Seamus McPeake back into the fray with open arms.

Is there anyone still involved in the game today that embodies the bad ways of the past more than McPeake?

In an ironic way, the Dragons – before the days of excessive player spending – embodied more of what basketball should aspire to than probably any of the clubs that will partake in the upcoming season.

Right now, the new league needs more South Dragons about it than some people’s pride will let on.