Tigers need to spend moreBy Jason Phelan
Fri 19 Aug, 2011RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says his club's powerbrokers must find more money to invest in his football department if the Tigers are to achieve their on-field goals.
Speaking at the club's annual hall of fame lunch on Friday, the coach said Richmond must work harder to compete with the financially stronger clubs off the field in order to achieve success on it.
"I think Collingwood spend between $1.5 to $3 million more than us per year, which is a significant amount, and the reality is that it's become somewhat of an arms race, so we've got to get back up with the big boys where we belong," Hardwick said.
"Servicing our debt is something that was crippling us, and the Fighting Tiger fund is helping with that, but the investment in resources is one thing we need to do."
Hardwick said the new ME Bank Centre training facility, opened at Punt Road earlier this year, had already produced tangible results, but that the club must continue to boost its football department spend.
The Tigers will miss the finals for the tenth year in succession this season and were criticised for selling home games that were played in Darwin and Cairns - producing losses to Port Adelaide and Gold Coast respectively - but Hardwick again defended the move.
"It was a decision that had to be made," he said.
"We had to invest in our footy department. They [the AFL] pay us around $500,000 per game and the reality is we needed the funds.
"We played very, very poorly on those two occasions. Regardless of where we played those games, the way we played we would have lost them anyway.
"It was an investment in our future. We probably cop a kick in the backside because we should have won those games, but I've got no doubt that come 2012 that will pay dividends with the investment in the bank."
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