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miirshroom · 30 days

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The Age of Wood and the Winds of Change

In Elden Ring the "Ruins" type structures are some of the most enigmatic to me. I have recently found an in-game strategy for reading the environment that may help shed more light on what they're all about, but first I have some thoughts that I want to record. This is a post about intersectionality between Elden Ring and other FromSoft games, using meta information to delve into the hidden distant past.

I was going through the Woodfolk ruins because I had some cleaning up to do there and found something that sparked a thought:

From the vantage point at the Altus Bloom behind this Wormface boss there is an optical illusion of a twister in a doorframe of the nearby ruins. This recalls to me a theory proposed by another person on Reddit that Farum Azula was once located above the Woodfolk ruins and was picked up by the twister and moved around. But more importantly I realized that the last time that I spent a significant amount of time in this area I had not thought to look for hints in my spreadsheet.

Intro to The Spreadsheet

I don't think I've discussed on tumblr my FromSoft spreadsheet. The basics is that it's where I collect various date-based information that corresponds to the release days of various FromSoft games. It has sortof been evolving over time into the present monstrosity. First I started with the astrological zodiac, because I noticed some astrology trends in Elden Ring itself, and reading the synopses of Armored Core games there are enough hints to piece together an astrological timeline across the games. There is confirmation of this in ACV where you fight through the zodiac as enemies. Then I had the idea to search for whether anyone had noticed a zodiac trend in Sekiro and as it turns out 8 of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals are represented - and once again they match to release years of Armored Core games including matching elements (i.e. 3 visible Folding Screen Monkeys matches to 3 AC games in the year of the Wood Monkey - 2004). In fact, 2004 is practically a convergence point for all of the weird meta stuff that traces back to it.

Sometime later I saw a post where someone was speculating about numerology in Elden Ring and learned that numerology has ties to tarot. Coincidentally, the major arcana has 22 entries when "The Fool" is counted twice as both 0 and 22, which is exactly the span of time between Eternal Ring (2000) and Elden Ring (2022). So I added that to the spreadsheet, where 2004 is "the Emperor" and 2005 is "the Hierophant". And when anomalies started converging on 2004, I noticed that April 1, 2004 (April Fool's Day) provides a unique opportunity to set up a second lagging-behind tarot track. And it also happens to fall within the Gemini era of AC games, so it's the ideal time for an imposter zodiac to split off as well. Silent Line: Armored Core (2003) is about the discovery of a second underground twin city. Armored Core: Nexus sees the short-lived emergence of a new corporation who had uncovered an ancient superweapon - a spin on Gemini's trait of "communication between the surface and the underworld". This seems to create the headache that is AC games following the "false" but flashy Western Zodiac while the vibes-based vedic astrology continues to be expressed subtly, but lagging behind as it does in the regular calendar year. I have guessed that this is where twin cities Nokron and Nokstella enter the picture in Elden Ring - and their development of the mimic tear.

And what ties this all off nicely is that FromSoft axed 14 game franchises by the end of 2004. With the benefit of hindsight it can be seen that only two (2) game franchises were receiving new entries both before and after 2004: Armored Core and the newly acquired Tenchu. There was a deliberate change in direction this year.

At some point I had a thought to check the moon phase for every game FromSoft has ever released (in my defense - they really like referencing the moon), and found exactly 4 dates that they had ever released a game on either a new moon or full moon. Three of these dates are in 2004. The single instance in another year is Forever Kingdom on June 21st, 2001 - the date of a solar eclipse. The same eclipse occurred in 2020 without a single release from FromSoft directly - only Demon's Souls remake by Bluepoint. The Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled for June 21, 2024. Applying a bit of math, this should be the year of the 20th major arcana "Judgement", which was in 2020 on the main track.

Basically, it is my belief that Elden Ring has a built in Augmented Reality Game component that can be uncovered by paying attention to what the writers pulled as inspiration from past games. Such as a past Age of Wood that correlates directly to the era of the Woodfolk Ruins. See below screenshots for what this data collection looks like for the years of 2004 and 2005, which were the years of the Wood Monkey and Wood Rooster:

Twisters and the Winds of Change

"The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning" - Wheel of Time Book 1: The Eye of the World

Following the trail of the Wood Rooster led me to discover that I am missing yet another column of data. I was on a wiki binge about the exact sequence of events at the end of WWII and from an article on the Potsdam Agreement I noted that Potsdam is on the Havel River. "Havel the Rock" is a character in Dark Souls who I was certain was inspired by Taurus because of his rocky, mountain-like design, and hoof-like feet and proximity to the Taurus demon. But actually looking at the name "Havel" it's a Gaul word that means "rooster", which would fit him to the year of the Rooster. And indeed his helmet resembles a cock's comb. But that made no sense for the spreadsheet - there is nothing "Taurus" about the year of the Wood Rooster in terms of the AC game matchup and there is no year of the Earth Rooster within the history of FromSoft. So failing all other options I turned to tarot. I knew very little about tarot before this little project, and did not realize that there is also zodiac tied to tarot suits. And sure enough, the zodiac attached to The Hierophant is Taurus. Strengthening the association, this is also probably why Havel's backstory has him as being a Bishop - the Heirophant is otherwise known as "the High Priest". Havel is known to hate the magic of Seath the Scaleless - I wonder if this hints that Seath is the Magician of the 2nd tarot track...

Some key art for Havel the Rock

So why was I looking at the Potsdam Agreement? The last game of 2004 was Metal Wolf Chaos. Of all of the games in their extensive library, FromSoft chose to bring back this game in response to popular demand. And of all of the dates to release a bombastic game about an over-the-top American President carelessly using weapons of mass destruction they chose August 6, 2019 - anniversary of the day that an atomic weapon was first detonated over Japan. I don't believe in coincidences when it comes to the release dates of FromSoft games, at least not in the past few years. Bloodborne: The Old Hunter's DLC released on November 24, 2015 - the birthday of Carlo Collodi, author of Pinnochio. This DLC sees the appearance of Lady Maria in the flesh, after previously meeting a doll fashioned in her image in the base game. I can only imagine that the developers of Lies of P sussed out some part of what FromSoft is up to and used it for their own Bloodborne-inspired game. Pinnochio is an impudent boy made of wood, perhaps what might be described as a Wood Monkey even. And once again, the Armored Core series pulls through in confirming that yes, FromSoft did have Pinnochio in their back pocket dating far earlier than you'd think. In Armored Core 2 (2000) and Armored Core 2: Another Age (2001) the corporation Balena has an "inside weapon" part called Puppet which "fires a dummy for enemy radar". Baleen is an archaic word for whale, from French - as in the whale that swallows the wooden puppet. The worm face in the Woodfolk ruins is not actually looking directly at the Minor Erdtree - it is looking at the pine tree in front of the tree. Pinocchio means "pine eye".

The 3 corporations of the AC2 generation. Zio Matrix I think to have the strongest ties to astrology, because Mars is the planet ruler of both Scorpio and Aries. Emeraude will be discussed below

As an observation of how this ripples forwards, 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon.

We're still a few meanders away from my point about the twister. In Metal Wolf Chaos, the president of the United States of America Michael Wilson has a lady on the coms named "Jodi". A charming gal who talks in his head and tells him what to blow up next on this whirlwind of destruction. I think it's a perfectly fitting origin for Marika ('murica) and her loyal shadow the Metal Wolf Maliketh. It's strange, isn't it, that Maliketh and Gurranq are the same, but displaced in time? Well, Metal Wolf Chaos (2004) exists beyond time trapped on the ancient device of Xbox Japan. Metal Wolf Chaos XD (2019) is much closer to the present, hence Gurranq's presence in the Bestial Sanctum. And maybe take a look at the white haired protagonist of Tenchu Dark Shadow (2006) - was not Marika's only use for her shadow as a place to keep Destined Death? I don't really think it matters if FromSoft always had the meta-narrative in mind when they picked up the Tenchu series or if this is a new lens applied with hindsight - it fits on the timeline.

Is it a weak connection that they both have white hair and hold sword in reverse grip and are Shadows? Maybe so, but I will grasp these straws

But Michael Wilson and Jodi are imposters - they are mimics of something older. That's what everything about the Gemini twins and the Wood Monkey and the new April Fool's Tarot are hinting at. Even on a surface level, it's a self-parody of the Armored Core format. And so the search continues with Armored Core (1997) where the major corporations are "Chrome" and "Murakumo Millenium" (murakumo means "a gathering of clouds"). The game has 29 template emblems, some of them generic and some silly and some obtuse, and the one that is most relevant for this train of thought is "Comet Judy". The name Judy being a very close corruption of Jodi. There are 3 leading candidates for what this emblem could be a reference to:

The Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (彗星) - a Japanese WWII dive bomber with a name meaning "Comet" but which the Western Allied reporting name was "Judy". A Suisei plane was used by 3 men in one of the final kamikaze ("divine wind") attacks by Japan in the hours after surrender on August 15, 1945.

A song called "St. Judy's Comet" which is a lullaby from father to son by Paul Simon (most famously from the musical duo Simon and Garfunkel), released on May 22, 1973.

Judy Garland - an actress who is most famous for playing Dorothy, a "good witch who fell from a star" in 1939's Wizard of Oz. Comets are not the same as shooting stars - that would be meteor fragments - but the actual art of the emblem does show a star.

Aside from Comet Judy I added 2 other emblems that are my favourites to make the embedded visual look better

The first two candidates will come up when you search "Comet Judy". And honestly, I would not count them out as being relevant in some manner (May 22 was the earliest release date of Lost Kingdoms 2 in 2003). The third only really makes sense with context clues. After all, there are dozens of Oz references in Elden Ring, and a handful here and there in Demon's Souls (the Twister-like shape of the Old Monk's Robe - perhaps a connection to think on between "Monk" and "Monkey") and Dark Souls (the "Homeward" miracle - good witches do "miracles", according to the 1939 film). They had to be inspired by something. And finally this is where the twister comes in. The one that picks up Dorothy's house and carries it off to Oz and a journey to find the wizard at the Emerald City. Another corporation of AC2 and AC2: Another Age is called "Emeraude", a French word meaning "Emerald". And after getting into the lore of the Wizard of Oz is when I start realizing that the twister can be a recurring phenomenon - The Wizard also arrived to the Land of Oz on a twister and it was through his influence that the Emerald City was constructed. Emeraude is a rival corporation to Balena - who is the corporation that manufactures the Moonlight laser sword in the AC2 generation of games. Luckily, following the guiding moonlight is where I find another solid point of comparison anchoring the Woodfolk Ruins twister to the years 2004-2005. Armored Core Nexus (2004) and Armored Core Nine Breaker (2005) are follow-ups to AC3. And in this generation of games the Moonlight laser sword is manufactured by the corporation "Mirage". As in Elden Ring's "Mirage Rise", which is found right next to the Woodfolk Ruins.

Here's another wrinkle to all this though. I know that the twister in the Woodfolk Ruins that I believe to be corresponding to Metal Wolf Chaos is not the first time a numen has fallen from a star/comet, or been carried in on the wind, or whatever. Both because of the pre-existence of the Emeraude Corporation, and because the name and context of Chelona's Rise tells the story of a witch who had a house dropped on her - and I think that Chelona's Rise pre-dates Mirage Rise by the nature of their puzzles. The question becomes: how many times before and after have the winds of change blown through, and when exactly were the other times? I think that there have been at least 4 twisters, as demonstrated by the 3 smaller twisters that can be seen accompanying timeless Farum Azula from the disconnected area through the Four Belfries "Crumbling Lands" portal. For the view of Farum Azula seen from the Isolated Divine Tower there is only one single twister seen spinning at the centre of the ruins - what possible meaning does this have?

The next lead that I have is Wyndham Ruins. Sometimes I'll idly do a "this day in history" kind of search for the various available dates. And it happens that July 10th is both the release date of the original Armored Core and the birthday of sci-fi writer John Wyndham, whose most famous work is The Chrysalids (as in how Roderika describes the Grafted Tarnished), and it's a story about a post-apocalyptic future where women are ostracized for giving birth to mutants. Wyndham also wrote The Day of the Triffids which is described as "After most people in the world are blinded by an apparent meteor shower, an aggressive species of plant starts killing people". And also The Midwitch Cuckoo "in which the women become pregnant by brood parasitic aliens". So, some interesting parallels there. For the Cuckoo in particular, this meshes with the knowledge that it's an old motif in the Lands Between - even the Moon of Nokstella has two cuckoos perched at the top of it.

Also notable that Wyndham Ruins is infested with deathroot. An aggressive species of plant that grows like a Cancer - which is one of the zodiac that spans across the "Age of Wood" according to my timeline project.

#elden ring #elden ring lore #media analysis #fromsoftware meta narrative #There are 24 named ruins in Elden Ring...does each one represent a year from 1994 to 2017?#what about the unnamed ruins at The Three Sisters?#I have about 80 game entries on the sheet in case anyone was wondering how many there are

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Jost, Zucker, Steel, Chabot, Kreider, and Forsberg – July 17

We’re only a couple weeks away from the release of the 2018-19 Dobber Hockey fantasy guide! It is set for release on August 1st and will be updated regularly as new information becomes available. Be sure to grab it early, get a grasp on values for players, and see how they can fluctuate over the next two months. It’s a great way to identify values later in draft season.

For the second straight year, Filip Forsberg’s overall time on ice declined. For the second straight year, his five-on-five ice time per game declined. For the third straight year, his five-on-five shot rate declined. For the second straight year, his shots per game declined. For the second straight year, his five-on-five individual expected goals rate declined.

Anyone watching Forsberg knows he’s not in decline. The guy’s hitting his prime. Injuries played a factor last year and the emergence of Viktor Arvidsson meant fewer shots to go around when the duo was on the ice together.

One thing that saved his season was his shooting percentage on the power play. His previous career-high was 15.4 percent. From 2014-17, he shot 11.3 percent on aggregate. In 2017-18, he shot 26.7 percent. Just playing 82 games will help mitigate the drop in PP goals but a return to normalcy could still cut his PP goal totals by three or four, even with the 15 extra games.

The team shot 8.8 percent with him on the ice at five-on-five from 2014-17. Last year, that jumped to 10.2 percent. Despite the team’s expected goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five with Forsberg on the ice being 2.7, they scored 3.6.

He also set a career-high in individual points percentage – the rate he tallies points on goals scored with him on the ice – with his previous high coming in 2014-15. It was a marginal record, but still his best.

Forsberg wasn’t very far off a point-per-game pace last year. The question is if he can repeat that and be an 80-point player this year. Given the high percentages basically across the board, I find it hard to believe he’ll be near a point-per-game player. Maybe he can crack 70 points but I’ll be interested to see his ADP once September rolls around. It might be too rich to search for any profit.

Writing about Alex Kerfoot last week got me thinking about Tyson Jost.

Jost had a fine year for a teenager, managing 22 points in 65 games playing under 15 minutes a game. There were growing pains along the way. He suffered an injury early in the year and eventually had to be sent to the AHL to sort his game out after his recovery. He was moved up and down the lineup. It’s not a terrible thing, though. In the era of super rookies and emerging players, it’s easy to forget that for many players, development is neither immediate nor linear.

It’s worth looking at what the numbers aside from just goals and points say.

Here’s how things like Jost’s zone entries, zone exits, and shot rates compared with another 19-year old centre in 2017-18 (from CJ Turtoro’s tableau):

The sample differs but 23 games for Jost is not nothing. He’s showing himself to be a player who looks to generate offence as soon as he gets the puck but being a scorer more than a distributor.

Another area Jost excelled is penalty differential. In terms of penalties drawn per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time last year, Jost was 31st out of 307 forwards with at least 700 minutes played. He ranked just behind names like Ondrej Kase, David Perron, Connor McDavid, Brendan Gallagher, and Kevin Fiala. In other words, pretty good company. That led to a plus-5 penalty differential, a solid mark in limited action.

He didn’t have star-level boxcar stats but Jost did a lot of the ‘little things’ extremely well last year. If he can continue his progression of creating plays both coming out of the defensive zone and entering the offensive zone, looking to score, and giving his team the numerical advantage, he’ll be a solid fantasy contributor in the next year or two. It may not happen in 2018-19 but once that young roster starts to fill out, Jost should be just fine. Dynasty owners just need to exercise some patience.

Sometimes I wonder about Chris Kreider’s ADP this year. His goal, assist, shot, and penalty minute paces (per game) were pretty much around his career norms. He’ll be on the top line with top power-play minutes. With the Rangers going through a rebuild and Kreider coming off a season where he missed a lot of games due to injury, does his ADP get depressed? He can be a very good across-the-board roto contributor when healthy. With a new coach and true top-line minutes, this seems like value in the making.

One player whose ADP I’m excited (scared?) to see in September is Yanni Gourde.

Gourde was a player in the vein of guys before him like Viktor Arvidsson, Jonathan Marchessault, and to a lesser extent Ondrej Kase. A guy certain pockets of the hockey community saw a player with good underlying results in small samples, solid minor league numbers, and hoped they’d get a chance. Gourde finally got his chance and managed 25 goals and 64 points as a 26-year old in his first full season.

Assuming the reports are accurate, Tampa Bay looks like the landing spot for Erik Karlsson. The question is the return. Is Gourde part of the package? Tyler Johnson? Alex Killorn? There will surely be picks and prospects. It’s still uncertain if any roster players are part of the package. Regardless, the lineup as it sits today is not likely to be the lineup in two months.

Gourde likely slots on the third line this year, be it as the centre or winger. Who plays with him? Will either Killorn or Johnson still be around? Will he be lined up with Cedric Paquette? Maybe one of their young wingers in Boris Katchouk or Taylor Raddysh, unless they’re part of the Karlsson trade.

There’s also the shooting percentage, which was over 18 percent overall and over 14.5 percent at five-on-five. That put him just outside the top-10 league-wide among forwards with 1000 minutes.

Gourde is a very good player. In cap leagues, he’s an exceptional asset. I just worry that the steam behind Tampa Bay as a team, Gourde’s superb year, and everyone wanting to get The Next Marchessault will push his ADP too high to be had at a reasonable price. We’ll see in a couple months.

Speaking of the impending Erik Karlsson trade, what does this do to Thomas Chabot? It surely gives him more minutes, especially on the power play, but the quality of that team will be… lacking, let’s say.

Chabot was, predictably, caved in last year shots-wise when playing away from Karlsson. That’s to be expected from such a young defenceman playing on a team devoid of talent. But who does he play with next year that could help in this regard? Cody Ceci?

Though he looks to have a bright future it could be tough sledding ahead for Chabot. It may be a few years yet before his fantasy potential is realized and it’ll have nothing to do with his play personally. Just the team surrounding him and the player he’s paired with.

This has to be the year the Ducks finally throw Sam Steel in the lineup, right? He averaged a shade under two points per game in his Draft+1 year and followed that with 83 points in 54 games last year. The injury to Ryan Kesler, and the uncertainty that brings, undoubtedly leaves them one centre short. He has to figure into the lineup, right?

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the need for the Ducks to move Ondrej Kase to the top line. I’m not sure that will actually be the case (no pun intended but welcomed nonetheless). A third-line duo of Steel-Kase is something that would be worth the look for the Ducks. Scoring outside of Rickard Rakell was hard to come by in 2017-18; Kase and Adam Henrique were a distant second behind Rakell’s 34-goal total with 20 each. Being able to run forward pairs of Getzlaf-Rakell, Henrique-Silfverberg, and Steel-Kase is a good way to spread out the talent while having solid lines throughout the roster. Provided, of course, that Steel can prove himself.

I’m intrigued here. He won’t get the top PP minutes to bring significant fantasy relevance but with so much time having elapsed since his draft, outside of dynasty owners, Steel is likely to go under the radar in keeper league setups. Take a flier on him late.

For those on Twitter, there’s a great account run by twin brothers called Evolving Wild. Though they delve often into the Minnesota team, they cover other ground as well. I just started recently following them but they’ve been around for a while.

Anyway, last week they were discussing Jason Zucker and posted this:

Zucker is worth north of $6MM IMO.

— EvolvingWild (@EvolvingWild) July 11, 2018

If you think that’s rich, Matt Cane’s salary projections (you should follow him, too) have Zucker at $5.2-million.

Now, there’s a difference between what a player is really worth and what they get on the market. Fourth liners are often overvalued (hi, Vancouver) while superstars less so. Teams often overpay for middle-of-the-roster players on the open market – go look at 2016’s free agency period – and underpay their top talent. Teams are getting better with aging curves but it’s a process.

Basically, all this is just reinforcing my unabashed love for Zucker. He’s an excellent hockey player who can do everything you’d want from a top-line forward. He should have had an offer sheet before he got to arbitration. Matt Dumba, too.

Again, what a player gets on the market (or in arbitration) isn’t what he’s necessarily worth. It’s just one way of valuing a player. Owners in cap leagues should be wary of this. I know it sounds basic but it’s just a friendly reminder.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-jost-zucker-steel-chabot-kreider-and-forsberg-july-17/

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footyplusau · 7 years

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Richmond Tigers’ heartbreak not Damien Hardwick’s fault

It’s not just comprehensive defeat which makes supporters of a losing club turn on a coach. Obvious blunders in the dying seconds of a close game, replayed as evidence of a tactical flaw or a message not getting through, can also do the trick.

Richmond have now had two such moments in consecutive weeks straight from the textbook of botched set plays. And predictably, the Tiger army has Damien Hardwick in the gun.

Trent Cotchin and his Tigers teammates look dejected after their loss to Greater Western Sydney. Photo: AFL Media/Getty Images

On Saturday night, after what appeared to be a match-sealing goal from Shai Bolton was overturned, GWS’ Nathan Wilson took the kick-in. There were three Richmond players in the vicinity to the Giants’ one, an unnecessary man spare, yet Wilson was still allowed to play on and gain an extra 10 metres on his speculative long bomb.

That kick went to a centre-square contest which saw the Giants’ Phil Davis punch the ball another 20 metres in his team’s direction. Toby Nankervis, one-out against two opponents, was bumped off his pursuit of the ball by Jeremy Cameron, who received the handball and goaled after Shane Mumford took possession.

As Cameron kicked from the 50-metre arc, there were five GWS players around the ball to Richmond’s two, and only a one-on-one inside the 50. Cameron could actually have kept running, drawn the final Tiger and popped a handball over the top for a “Joe the goose”.

Why Richmond hadn’t lined up with a wall across the back of the centre square to meet the oncoming GWS tide, why that extra man loitered around the kick-in, and why the 80 seconds that elapsed between Bolton’s “goal” and the kick-in wasn’t long enough for the Tigers to get organised, particularly after conceding a goal with 21 seconds left on the clock last week, is anyone’s guess.

But to what extent is that Hardwick’s fault? To what extent is it the fault of the players? Or both? Opinions were split in the SEN box on Sunday, Kevin Bartlett calling it a coaching issue, Nick Dal Santo putting the heat squarely on the senior players.

I tend more towards the latter view. Whatever breakdown in communication this time, given what had happened a week previously, should the Tigers’ on-field generals have needed a message from the box?

With the long bomb down the middle the Giants’ only way of salvaging a win, could not skipper Trent Cotchin, his vice-captains Jack Riewoldt and Alex Rance, or one of the Tigers’ other six 100-games-plus players, have organised a defensive wall along the back end of the centre square in the 80 seconds available?

But even if you did blame Hardwick and the rest of the coaching box, can you really, seriously argue his message isn’t getting through?

There’s no evidence of that in what we’ve seen from Richmond so far this season, beyond even the fact the Tigers still have a 5-4 record, have been within 13 points of making that 8-1, and have lost to two flag favourites by less than a kick.

The Tigers have this year changed their game more dramatically than perhaps any other side, dispensing with much of the meaningless uncontested possession and keepings-off across half-back which blunted any effectiveness, becoming instead the longest-kicking team in the AFL.

They’re still scoring two goals per game more than they did last year with fewer inside 50 entries. And they’re No.1 for contested ball percentage, a habitual weakness in recent years, so much so that over the previous four seasons, which have taken in three finals appearances, their equivalent ranking in that category has been only 16th, 11th, ninth and last year 13th.

Could a coach elicit that degree of improvement making such fundamental changes to the way his side was playing if he wasn’t getting the message across?

As spectacular as have been a number of Richmond disasters under Hardwick, their record in tight finishes is actually better than a lot presume. Of 28 games decided by under 10 points in his eight-season reign, the Tigers have won 11, lost 15 and drawn two. That hardly screams a debacle.

What Saturday night’s disaster does make you wonder is how instinctive the game is for many Richmond players. As Dal Santo pointed out on Sunday, there’s still a big difference between rehearsing such game scenarios and enacting them under actual match pressure. Indeed, Cotchin conceded after the game that the “goal” which became a point may have thrown the Tigers a little too much for the next set-up.

Instinct is an important leadership attribute. It means the on-field generals can not only read game scenarios quickly and marshal the troops accordingly, but anticipate a gathering storm and react in time to save the day.

That’s been a problem for the Tigers for a while. But it’s not one even the best coach can necessarily do much about.

Sheeting all the blame home to Hardwick supposes that this Richmond side should be performing a lot better than it is. But is that the case? I actually think they’ve done pretty well thus far with what they’ve got. And that opinion hasn’t changed in the past fortnight, no matter how heartbreaking the last two losses have been for the fans.

The post Richmond Tigers’ heartbreak not Damien Hardwick’s fault appeared first on Footy Plus.

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