What I liked best about yesterday's game is precisely what frustrated me about RL from game 14 on last year, and made me lose faith in him as a coach that could take us to a premiership. After the Richmond loss last year and particularly towards the end of the year, Blind Freddy could see the way things were headed. Some of our seasoned warriors looked jaded and exhausted as we ground our way to 3-4 goal wins against the worst sides. I didn't understand then and I don't understand now why he didn't blood more of the young fellas he's been forced to play recently. The way the young fellas hunted the ball-carrier yesterday and generally added that spark that was missing for the last 10 or so games last year, and the first few this year, was a bloody joy to behold. He could easily have swapped in a Grey or Blakely or Langdon or Weller for Muz or De Boer or Clancy or Suban for a few games each and we still would've won plenty of games and finished first, and we also would've gotten game time into some of our young fellas. I'm glad RL's our coach, and I can't think of anyone better to lead the team, but that inflexibility in the face of the bloody obvious running out of steam and ideas and momentum was a costly mistake that we've paid a price for then and now.
