Tiger review may ensure more funds
Michael Gleeson | May 8, 2007
The Age
BEFORE it had endured the worst defeat in its history, the wheels of change had turned at Richmond with an extensive review of the club launched with specific focus on the football department.
The review by president Gary March will lead to more funding for recruiting and player development as part of a broader restructure of the football department.
March conceded these areas of the club had been under-resourced for several years, but it was only now that the club was in a financial position to do something about it.
More resources already have been committed to the football department at the club, which was recently ranked in the bottom quartile in the AFL for football revenue and spending.
The role of football director and board member Greg Miller will form part of the review, with concern that he is spread too broadly, being responsible for football management, player contracts, recruiting and list management as well as various roles with coterie groups.
"This has not happened in the last two weeks, this happened before the start of the season. I said I wanted to review our entire organisation from CEO right through, with a view to it being two years into our five-year plan and we are financially in a position where we could implement more changes," March said.
"Do we have the ideal structure across the organisation? Do we have the ideal structure for the football department? I want to know what the best structure is.
"It is about how we are structured up against other organisations and do we have the right structure to take us to the next level?
"Out of that may come significant changes or no changes at all. We are a fair way down the path. If we need to make changes, we wanted to make them earlier than later, and to implement them this season to get a fresh start on next season.
"There is no doubt recruiting is an area we will spend more money in, as is player development. There is no doubt we were under-resourced. We have spent more in the last year and we will spend even more … there will be more money spent in areas of football."
March denied the club was suffering the pain now for not cutting the list deeper two years ago and for the choice of players brought into the club. "We have virtually had the maximum number of picks in the last three drafts. You can't cull 10 blokes every year," he said. "You are going to pay the price at some stage for the transition. It could have happened last year, but we couldn't turn over as many as we needed to and bring them all through."
March said the club had lost face with its supporters after Sunday's 157-point loss to Geelong.
"For us, the most disappointing thing is that as a club we felt we had made big inroads in the last few weeks in winning the confidence of our members and supporters in the way we were structuring our club," March said. "In two hours, we wiped that away and that is the most disappointing thing on the weekend."
Today, Miller, March and captain Kane Johnson will join Wallace at his regular Tuesday press conference, thus presenting a unified front of club leaders to face the music over the embarrassment of Sunday's loss.
Miller yesterday wrote an apology which was emailed to members and posted on the Tigers' website. "I understand the pain and disappointment that you all feel," he wrote. "We have tested your loyalty and commitment many times … Many will say we've heard it before but if you love Richmond, you will take a deep breath and trust that the foundations are solid, and in place."
He asked that the playing group not be measured on Sunday's performance alone.
PLAYER PAYMENTS 12th $7.675m (+2%)
RECRUITING16th $143,000
(Greg Miller, Richmond director of football, was heavily involved in recruiting in 2006 and was not included in the figure above)
COACHING STAFF 14th $825,000 (+15%)
TOTAL FOOTBALL SPENDING (includes fitness and conditioning, player payments, recruitment, team expenses)
15th $10.802m (+5%)
FOOTBALL REVENUE (sponsorship, membership, gate receipts, merchandise, fund-raising, marketing and AFL-sources)
14th $14.14m
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