The Neil Blame, Blake Caracella influence at RichmondLachie Young,
Geelong Advertiser
11 August 2017THE changing fortunes of Richmond this year can be attributed to many things, but perhaps none more significant than the off-season acquisition of two men who won’t show up on the stats sheet any time soon.
Neil Balme and Blake Caracella, who have each enjoyed success as players, and administrators and assistant coaches respectively, joined the Tigers on the back of an incredibly disappointing 2016 season with a view of providing much needed reinforcement to embattled coach Damien Hardwick.
The quick turnaround may have come as a surprise to some, but not to Balme.
He says Richmond’s rapid improvement helps substantiate his long held position that senior coaches need strong support structures in place if they are to prosper.
“I’ve always believed that we rely too much on the individual coach and it’s really the people around him that have the overall significant influence over what he can do,” Balme said.
“He can only do a certain amount and I think we expect so much from the individual
“In Damien’s case they just had an ordinary year last year but he has been outstanding … sometimes you have your moments as a coach when your team doesn’t play as well as you’d like but I think we need to remember that it’s a pretty serious competition.”
Tigers head coach Damien Hardwick speaks with assistant coaches Justin Leppitsch and Blake Caracella. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Despite his sizeable contribution in his role as general manager of football, Balme is unwilling to take responsibility for the fact that Richmond appears to be more settled — on and off the field — than at any time in its recent history.
It is just his way and he would prefer others to take the credit.
He is a huge fan of Caracella, with whom he worked when he was at both Collingwood and Geelong, and has no doubt the 187-game dual premiership player is a senior coach in waiting.
“He is always pretty calm and he sees the game probably as well as anyone I know,” Balme said.
“(Blake) really sees why things happen and what he thinks is going to happen pretty clearly. He sees the patterns pretty well and that is part of his role.
“He is an intelligent guy and he has always been an intelligent footy person, and it means he thinks about it and things don’t just happen by accident.
“He has got a pretty good feel for the shape of the game, how it goes, and how doing things in a particular way can influence how well you play and what you can do.”
When it comes to coaching pedigree you would have to go a long way to find anything better than Caracella’s.
The former Essendon, Brisbane and Collingwood midfielder had three senior coaches across AFL career: Kevin Sheedy, Leigh Matthews and Mick Malthouse.
Those men have a remarkable 11 premierships between them and have imparted varying ideas and philosophies that have shaped Caracalla’s own coaching identity.
He also worked with Malthouse as an assistant at Collingwood and was Chris Scott’s right-hand man in the 2011 Geelong premiership.
In 2015 Caracella was one of nine assistant coaches to be accepted into the elite level-four coaching program run by the AFL, and he is widely regarded within the industry as an astute thinker of the game.
This season he has worked on transforming Richmond’s midfield spread and ball movement — a problem area for the Tigers in the past few seasons.
One player who has benefited enormously from Caracella’s arrival at Punt Rd is raging Brownlow Medal favourite Dustin Martin, who has elevated his game to a new level in 2017 and is now winning the ball in far more dangerous positions on the ground than he had been prior to this year.
Balme said Richmond’s evolution in the way the entire side, particularly Martin and the midfield group, was moving the ball, was clearly paying dividends.
“I’m not absolutely sure how close they all are but obviously they have to spend a lot of time together so I imagine they are learning off each other,” he said.
“(Blake) and Andrew McQualter are working with the midfielders. Andrew does most of the stoppage stuff and he does a lot of the ball movement after and the setups and the way we play, so they work very well together. All of those guys in the midfield he has had a bit to do with.
“Everyone from Cotch, who has been around a fair while, to Dusty, and Kane lambert is one they’d be pretty happy with the way he has come on this year.”
It seems inevitable Caracella will end up in a senior coaching role in the near future, and be it at the end of this season or further down the track, the Tigers can be grateful for having had him at their club.
And it is for that reason Balme says the Tigers would give him their blessing should it happen while he is still there.
“He certainly knows the game well and all of the guys who have been in relatively senior assistant roles for a while are who the clubs will look at,” Balme said.
“You never quite know what they are looking for but certainly in Blake’s case he has got the experience and the calmness and the knowledge of the game for them to consider him.
“I think he’d be able to do it but I’m not sure what they’re looking for.”
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/sport/afl/the-neil-blame-blake-caracella-influence-at-richmond/news-story/6d5459c378a161f2745439fb72d40557
