Tiger rookies have runs on the boardBy Ashley Browne and Jennifer Witham
7:15pm AEDT Tuesday, December 11, 2012RICHMOND'S philosophy on Wednesday morning was to swoop on some hard-bodied, mature-aged players in a bid to help break its finals drought, which is entering its 12th season.
The Tigers grabbed Ricky Petterd (Melbourne), Sam Lonergan (Essendon) and Orren Stephenson (Geelong) with their first three selections at Wednesday's NAB AFL Rookie Draft, which follows their activity earlier in the off-season in signing Port Adelaide's Troy Chaplin and Adelaide's Chris Knights as free agents and a trade for North Melbourne's Aaron Edwards.
Petterd, 24, played 54 games and kicked 55 goals for the Demons, but was delisted by the club at the end of last season after a wretched year dogged by an Achilles injury.
He has been training with the Tigers for the last month.
Lonergan, 25, ended his Essendon career at the end of last season after 79 games in six seasons and the tough midfielder shapes to provide excellent depth for the club's emerging on-ball brigade.
The 200cm Stephenson played eight games and kicked a goal this year, his only season for the Cats after an outstanding career in the VFL.
Like Petterd, the 30-year-old has been training with the Tigers for the past few weeks.
When Petterd and Lonergan walked into the Punt Road auditorium on Tuesday, clothed in Richmond polos, they were also wearing relieved smiles after two months of uncertainty.
For Petterd, the months after he was dumped by the Demons were filled with fitness training and rehabilitation from the Achilles surgery he had in August.
He kept his eye on the prize of getting a second AFL chance, and appears in good shape to take the one given to him with the operation proving a success so far.
"In the first few weeks, I spent the whole time getting my body right so then I could start training," Petterd said, hours after the draft.
"I've had a couple of good mates who are personnel trainers and fitness fanatics so they've been taking me training, which is great.
"When you get delisted from a club, you've got a lot to prove and that's what I wanted to do."
Petterd said his body felt the best it had in two years and he was on the verge of stepping into full training with his new teammates.
Lonergan, who like Petterd followed Richmond as a youngster, spent time after his delisting from Essendon looking after the ankle he needed an operation on after he hurt it late in the season.
He recently had a crack at labouring with former Essendon teammate Ricky Dyson, which was an experience that made him appreciate his rookie-list opportunity all the more.
"I worked last week on the construction site so it's good to be off that site now and be back in the AFL system," Lonergan said.
"I'd do anything not to go back there and dig up tiles and holes and stuff so it's good … it's a great club and exciting to be here and start fresh."
While waiting until Tuesday's draft was frustrating, the fall-out from being dumped from a club they had spent multiple years at was harder to bear.
Petterd had injury issues and Lonergan was a midfielder among many at Essendon.
Still, no explanation made that conversation with the coach easier to have.
"It was disappointing when it happened," Petterd admitted.
"The last couple of months have been pretty tough to not know what's going to happen with my future.
"I've had a fair few injuries over the last six years at Melbourne and I've been pretty unlucky with the ones I've had.
"At the same time, I understand how clubs work and they can't hold players for such an amount of time with the injuries I've had."
Petterd, 24, is confident his best footy is ahead of him while Lonergan is looking forward to bringing his trademark toughness and inside midfield work to the group with his mantra, "when one window closes, another one opens".
While they may be rookies to begin with, they'll likely get their chances to prove themselves at Richmond.
As the season drew to a close, coach Damien Hardwick predicted the Tigers' recent approach to recruit mature-aged players in the wake of an injury spate at Punt Road.
"I think what'll happen is sides will get a bit smarter with the way they use their rookie lists. It becomes more of an injury reserve-type list, more than young players," Hardwick said.
"It probably caught us a bit off-guard this year with the injuries we have.
"We just didn't quite have the players available to put in straight away .... so, it's something we'll address."
The Tigers have added 11 new players to their list through the drafts, free agency and trading, with six of them experienced at AFL level.
They finally went young with their final selection, with 18-year-old versatile former Murray Bushranger Cadeyn Williams making his way to Punt Road.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2012-12-11/tigers-target-experienced-rookies
