Tigers chief: This flag is more special than 2017Daniel Cherny
The Age
30 September 2019Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale feels this year's premiership is more special than the breakthrough flag of two years ago because of the weight of challenges confronted by the Tigers this year.
Speaking at Punt Road on Sunday as Richmond lapped up the spoils of Saturday’s 89-point grand final demolition of Greater Western Sydney, Gale said the Tigers' injury woes in the first half of the season meant 2019 was sweeter even than the 2017 premiership, which ended a 37-year drought.
"As I reflect now, it feels more special," Gale said.
"'17 was like an irresistible force of momentum, and all of a sudden you're premiers. Whereas this year was a genuinely hard year, plenty of adversity, and we worked our way through it together."
However Gale, who has headed the Tigers for a decade, was careful about the way he labelled this era.
"I'm not saying 'dynasty'. I won't say the 'D-word'.
"I'm not going there. Whenever the word 'dynasty' is used, the opposite tends to eventuate. We just live in the moment, take it year by year, quarter by quarter."
Richmond landed Tom Lynch as a high-priced free agent last off-season, but Gale flagged a quieter trade period for the club this year, backing the list to improve from within as the likes of Lynch, Sydney Stack and grand final hero Marlion Pickett get full pre-seasons behind them.
"I don’t think we're going to be as active as what we have been. I'm very confident with where our list is at," Gale said.
Both Gale and president Peggy O'Neal reflected on the turbulence of 2016, a year in which the Tigers conducted a football department review after Richmond tumbled down the ladder and several groups threatened to challenge the club’s board.
"We were on a trajectory. We'd played finals three successive years," Gale said.
"We had a long hard look at a few things, and that experience was affirming, because it affirmed that we did a lot of things right, and we just had to change a few things and focus on a few different areas.
"Does it mean I felt we were going to win the premiership? Probably not. But I felt very confident we were going to respond."
O'Neal conceded it had been a distraction.
"We thought we were on our way. Things in football aren't always linear. We'd been in finals and we hadn't won one, we'd been in finals three years in a row," she said.
"2016, we thought this could be the year that we'd go backwards, and we were willing to accept that. We'd already signed [coach] Damien [Hardwick] for another couple of years before the year started. So can I say that I thought we would win two premierships in the next three years? No, you can hope you do. But we thought we had the right people in place. We needed to change some things, but we thought the coach, Brendon and his exec were the right people. I guess over time, a bit of patience and it's come together."
O'Neal said her board had remained single-minded.
"There were a few [rival] groups. As a board, we had been very united in that decision. I kept thinking that the opinion that matters is ours. It came back to principles of 'you’ve been elected to do a job, and this is your job, and you keep doing that job until someone else gets elected'.
"It was a distraction in the sense that we were putting in place some things that we now see. Instability doesn't really inspire confidence in people wanting to come and work here or play here."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/tigers-chief-this-flag-is-more-special-than-2017-20190929-p52w0m.html
