<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Just like clockwork, every pre-season the familiar rumble of 'our time' erupts from Punt Road. There's talk of pre-season stars, fresh gun recruits, off-field gains and club expenditure; but what is it in 2013 that will really help lift the Tigers out of their 11-year slumber to finally taste September action?
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]It's hard to assess a club like Richmond which, in patches, can offer you glimpses of brilliance, yet still languish among the cellar dwellers. Within the 2012 season, the Tiges comprehensively beat both Grand Finalists Hawthorn and Sydney, produced the Coleman Medallist and Brownlow Medal runner-up, along with two Rising Star nominations and yet still were able to produce what Paul Roos coined, ''the worst 47 seconds in footy'' in losing to the Gold Coast Suns. All of the ingredients for premiership success are there, yet the Tigers remain little more than a constant source of frustration for supporters. So what is it that keeps coming unstuck?
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Under Damien Hardwick's reign, the Tigers have done everything by the book. Gradual improvement has been the motto since the Essendon and Port Adelaide dual-premiership player took over in 2010, winning six, eight and 10 games respectively while simultaneously increasing club expenditure and wiping out a debt that had crippled previous administrations.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]The club has increased membership to in excess of 50,000 for the first time, and completely transformed the club's facilities; fully resurfacing the Punt Road oval and developing the multi-million dollar ME Bank Centre, finally putting themselves in a position to compete with its cross-town fat cat neighbours on Swan Street.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Yet all the off-field improvements in the world cannot hide what the Tigers lack, and that is quite simply, and brutally, the knowledge of how to win.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]It is a plague that has cursed the yellow-and-black army for over 30 years, as the Tigers forever branded the under-achievers of the competition. Taunted with melodies of 'We finished ninth again', the Tigers have become renowned for promising so much, yet stumbling at the final hurdle.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Richmond have not seen September action since 2001 when Danny Frawley was coach, Wayne Campbell was captain and Brendon Gale, now the club's CEO, was attacking centre bounces as the No.1 ruckman. Since their last premiership way back in 1980, the Tigers have played in just eight finals, 17 fewer than any Victorian rival. Even the now defunct Fitzroy, which merged with Brisbane in 1996, had played in eight finals, raising worrying questions for Richmond's administrators.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]A once-proud club has become stuck in a culture of losing, and Hardwick, the eighth coach to lead the Tigers in the past 20 years, has a job ahead to transform his team into a perennial power.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Many will point to the 2012 season as a successful one for the men in yellow and black. The Tiges finished the year with a percentage of 111.6%, a vast improvement on the previous season's paltry 86.4 and in doing so registered their first percentage over 100 since 2001 and their highest overall percentage since 1995.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]After losing to Carlton in Round 1 by 44 points, the Tigers didn't lose a game by more than 22 points and their average losing margin for the season, 15 points, was the smallest in the competition. However, while the statistics show improvement, the most damning evidence came in the last two minutes of several matches, which more often than not left Tiger fans cursing their way from the MCG carpark.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]If the final siren had sounded two minutes earlier in every game last year, Richmond could well have finished sixth and made the finals for just the third time in 20 years. Last-quarter lapses against Geelong, West Coast, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Carlton and Port Adelaide in the 2012 season buried the Tigers' hopes of breaking their finals curse, relegating them to the also-rans again.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Like a racehorse too often used as the pacemaker, Richmond have simply forgotten how to win the tough ones. Perhaps they had read too much of their own bad press and become accustomed to disappointment? Maybe a lack of on-field leadership is to blame, as the young Tiger cubs, the youngest team in the AFL but for GWS and the Gold Coast Suns, have not the resolve or experience to fight out the close, tough encounters. Ironically, even the two expansions sides have more finals experience on their list than the struggling Tigers.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]It is a harsh reality that this group simply cannot find a way to win when the going gets tough. Though statistically improving, the Tigers still played like a team unsure and even unbelieving of their own potential. Such things simply don't happen to the good teams.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]In an attempt to arrest their last-minute lapses, the Tigers are taking the innovative step of turning to their newest recruit. The biggest recruit of the summer period for the Tigers did not arrive through the free player agency period, nor did he/she arrive in the rookie draft.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]Richmond's newest team member has finals experience at Geelong as well as experience working on a National platform with the Australian swimming team. Dr Pippa Grange, a doctor of applied psychology, started working at Richmond in December to instil a charter of premiership-winning characteristics. Grange will be a regular on game-day in the coach's box with Hardwick, as well as mentoring the club's executive management and player leadership ground.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]It is familiar territory for Grange, who spent two years at Geelong with Brad Scott through his 2011 premiership, as well as a stint at St Kilda, assisting as they grappled with the 'St Kilda schoolgirl scandal'. The willingness of Richmond and its directors to allow a stranger into their inner sanctum should be applauded, as well as their willingness to chase what is holding back their success, even if it is an issue as abstract as lack of self-belief.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]While not a sure-fire solution, Grange's input will go some way to piecing together the scattered, yet brilliant pieces of the Richmond puzzle. The yellow and black faithful have been patient, but another failure this season would make Hardwick's position tenuous to say the least.
<p style='margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: none 0px; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-align: start;]If he is successful in doing what favourite sons Francis Bourke, Kevin Bartlett and John Northey have failed to do and bring home a premiership cup, Hardwick will be lauded as a genius, the saviour of Punt Road. However failure would fatally harm his reputation and no doubt earn his head a place on the infamous Richmond coach's chopping block.