Tigers axe recruiting manager
By Jake Niall
realfooty.theage.com.au
August 27, 2004
Richmond's financial struggles have forced the club to make big cost-cutting in the football department, with influential football director Greg Miller compelled to take a hands-on role in recruiting next year.
Recruiting manager Greg Beck has become the latest casualty of the new broom sweeping through Richmond's football operations. Beck will finish his nine-year stint at Tigerland after the 2004 national draft.
The cash-conscious Tigers plan to go into 2004 without a recruiting manager - the position having been made redundant - meaning Miller will assume responsibility for recruiting, in addition to his other duties.
The club will be "one short" in its full-time football staff next year compared with 2004.
Having approached departing Bulldogs coach Peter Rohde about a position as an assistant coach with a dual fitness-coaching role, new coach Terry Wallace also has spoken to former Collingwood star and coaching hopeful Mick McGuane about a possible involvement at Richmond.
McGuane, who has been a successful coach of Gisborne, has been keen to break into AFL coaching ranks for some time. McGuane met Wallace on Wednesday.
Beck's axing follows the exits of football manager Greg Hutchison and assistant coach Paul Spargo, while the position of assistant coach Wayne Brittain remains precarious at best.
Wallace, who is remaking the football department in collaboration with Miller, is set to be joined at Richmond by his former Whitten Oval lieutenant Paul Armstrong, who is poised to assist Wallace in a football management or administration role.
Another former Bulldog assistant David Noble, who has been coaching Glenelg for the past two years, is considered another potential addition to Wallace's team.
The revamp of the football department will be a low-cost operation. Miller said yesterday that Beck's removal was due to financial pressures.
"The major reason is financial," Miller said of Beck's sacking. "We have to cut back significantly this year. Basically, the full-time position of recruiting manager has been made redundant."
Miller confirmed that he would take over the management of recruiting, with help from full-time forward scout David Wheadon, while the club would continue to use part-timers in the field. "After November, I'll take on a greater role," Miller said of the recruiting restructure. "Myself and David Wheadon will have to do."
The cost-cutting will have an impact, too, on the club's total player payments, which will reduce in real terms, as the club braces itself for a loss of about $2 million this year.
Miller said the club had paid the full salary cap and additional allowances, such as the veterans' allowance, in 2004. Next year, it would not pay up to full salary cap, when veterans were taken into account. Matthew Richardson is eligible for veteran status, wherein only half his salary counts in the cap, next year.
While the salary cap will rise by about 3 per cent in 2005, Miller said the club planned to pay "pretty much" the same dollar amount next year as it did in 2004. Richardson's veteran payments would allow it to pay substantially more.
Miller said the belt-tightening would not necessarily affect the club's capacity to lure players via the pre-season draft, where the 16th-placed Tigers might have first crack at an uncontracted player. "It's too early to say that. We'll see."
Miller paid tribute to Beck's work at the club. "Since I've been working with Greg in the last two years, his loyalty and commitment have been outstanding and his back-end choices (late in the draft) have been outstanding."
http://realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/26/1093456750094.html
