Make room for the kids
Michael Gleeson | May 18, 2007 | The Age
MATTHEW Richardson is likely to find himself relegated to the ruck or roaming a wing at some point in tonight's game in Adelaide. The player who made a career as the most formidable forward Richmond has produced since Royce Hart will be expendable to the forward line.
This is seemingly an absurdist, suggestion for a club on the bottom of the ladder without a win, but the reality is that Richardson is the new Darren Gaspar. He has not been pushed into retirement but he has been pushed out of position by concern for who comes next.
The same philosophy that precipitated Gaspar's retirement 14 days ago is manifest in the choice of Richardson in the ruck. Richo is unlikely to be in the Tigers' next premiership team, Gaspar would not have been.
Cultivation of the likes of Cleve Hughes and Jay Schulz into key forwards and Graham Polak as a centre half-back to form a spine of the Tigers' team means it is more important to establish a structure around these players. Therefore, none of these lesser types will be asked, as Polak was earlier in the year, to assist in the ruck while injury afflicts Troy Simmonds and Trent Knobel.
Richardson undoubtedly is still the Tigers' best and most important player and will remain so until either Nathan Brown recovers fully from injury and hits his finest form or Brett Deledio matures and reaches his potential. But, winless at the bottom of the ladder, the broader picture demands that it be 32-year-old Richardson who pinch-hits at bounces tonight.
It was the same for Gaspar. When he retired, Gaspar was a superior player to either Luke McGuane or Kel Moore. But, in the bottom team, Gaspar, 31 this Sunday, was not likely to be in a Richmond 22 that was capable of challenging for a flag.
It was probably the correct discussion, but it was a conversation that should have been had six months earlier before Gaspar re-signed to a new contract. Senior Richmond people already quietly acknowledge they should have handled things better.
It was a measure of the player that he dealt with it as he did. Gaspar made his displeasure known but did not dwell on it. He was upset with the club but will not be estranged from it.
"The decision with myself I didn't agree with and I made that clear," Gaspar said. "It was so deflating for me. I was absolutely blown away and the best way I can describe it is I came away from the meeting with (coach) Terry (Wallace) just completely deflated. I was expecting to play the year and I didn't see it coming.
"He knew what he was telling me in the meeting we had, so it is not as if it was a surprise that I then retired."
He added: "I would not have played on if was told in January, but I am not bitter about it. I did play another five games and I had 14 years, so it is a pretty good innings. I've had a pretty good career."
Gaspar, who took a pay cut when he returned from a knee injury unable to play to his earlier standard, again put club concerns first. Publicly, the Gaspar decision came months after Wallace also noted in a pre-season briefing that the club's window of opportunity for success would open in 2011 when a generation of players matured into the important mid-20s age bracket. It was interpreted, wrongly, as indicating the club did not expect success before then.
It was felt by some that the older players would have been perplexed by the comment and wonder if they were wasting their time.
"I can't remember us talking to each other about that sort of thing," Gaspar said this week. "Terry explained about the window of opportunity opening and we had no problem with it. I can honestly say the older players at the club didn't look at that as though, 'Gee what are we doing here?' It was just a matter of knowing we would have a range of guys in their mid-20s then.
"He described that there would potentially be a lull but then that mid-20s bracket would come through and we would be stronger. I think it was the media's take on it that wasn't the players take. One thing Terry does well is communicate what he is thinking, he does not hold anything back. He tells the media what he tells the players.
"So when I retired, I don't think players were looking over their shoulders wondering if it might happen to them. I think they were just disappointed for me or surprised."
Gaspar retains a respect for Wallace, irrespective of the decision that ended his career, but there is a greater fondness for the man who preceded him. "Danny (Frawley) was the best coach I had," Gaspar said. "He was a brilliant coach for a couple of years there and then he sort of lost his way a bit, but he was a very good coach. He had a very strict idea of what he wanted and what we had to do. And it was the only year I played finals, so I thought he coached very well that year in particular."
Gaspar does not believe the youth policy will mean other older players meet his fate. And nor should it mean the likes of Kent Kingsley will be denied an opportunity. "It is just a matter of finding a balance and they obviously thought they needed to make the decision on me and they felt young guys could fill that spot."
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