Over the first half of 2016
the club that has lost the most ranking points is Richmond. Much to my
frustration as a Tigers supporter they have started the past few seasons
slowly, and have then had to make up ground over the second half of the season
to earn a finals spot. The table below shows the number of ranking points that
Richmond has received in the first half and second half of the season over the
past few years, along with how that compares to other clubs.
In the past two seasons in
particular Richmond has been a lot better in the second half of the season,
including during its
memorable surge into the finals in 2014. Does that give some hope to Tigers
supporters for the rest of 2016?
Perhaps, but on the other hand
perhaps not much. Richmond is starting from further back than previous seasons,
as it has not started a season this badly, in terms of ranking points, in six
years (it started worse in 2014 in terms of wins). And an improvement similar
to that over the past two seasons, of about two goals a match, will only take
the Tigers back to being an average club, and they need to be somewhat better
than average to make the finals from here. And then there is the possibility
that they will not improve at all (or get worse).
Another frustrating part to
me of the Tigers starting slowly is that it brings out all the ‘crisis’ talk
early in the season. If you want to get good press, on average, over the course
of a season, better to start off well and then fade away than the reverse.
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