Harley Bennell, Chris Yarran could be Richmond’s missing premiership link Jon Ralph
Herald Sun
September 22, 2015 8:00PMRICHMOND can cultivate a group of choir boys and model citizens or it can try to win a premiership.
That blunt equation has been at the heart of so many trade decisions but in coming weeks it will be Richmond’s risk-reward proposition.
The Tigers tried and seemingly failed to recruit a choirboy in Adam Treloar, who doesn’t drink, doesn’t party, doesn’t do anything that jeopardises his footy career.
Plan B involves a pair of players who have cornered the market on all those things in recent years.
One of them has spent has career seemingly not trying, while the other has actively tried to self-destruct his career.
Richmond won’t hand over their first pick for Chris Yarran, but he is odds-on to start season 2016 in a Richmond jumper.
Right now they have only an expression of interest in for Gold Coast bad boy Harley Bennell.
If they decide to venture down that track their decision could be a game-changer that helps them win a premiership — or an unmitigated disaster.
The easiest decision for Richmond is just to say no.
Yarran has a catalogue of little misdemeanours including continued lack of effort in games, a stand-up blue with coach Mick Malthouse and missing John Barker’s first team meeting as coach.
Richmond fans would storm Punt Rd if they gave away a first-round pick for the flighty flanker and yet not blink an eye if they can secure him with a value selection.
Bennell is seen as a rock star with a much lengthier and more serious rap sheet.
He was captured taking drugs on the front page of the Herald Sun, suspended for breaking drinking bans, spent a night in the lockup recently for a skirmish with a bouncer and has often turned up to recovery under the weather.
That is the harshest interpretation, with Bennell’s disorder charge settled with only an $810 fine and Bennell one of dozens of AFL player who has been part of the drug scene.
If he had hired an Uber to head home instead of slapping a cigarette out of a nightclub bouncer’s mouth while arguing for a friend’s re-entry, he would be hot property.
Instead that incident was a tipping point, which means clubs like Richmond are seen as handling a ticking time bomb by even considering a trade for the 22-year-old.
Richmond could just say no to that pair, but their common link is blinding talent.
This time last year we were savaging Jeff Garlett and Mitch Robinson for their deceit to Malthouse, yet Robinson just won a best and fairest and Garlett kicked 40.31 this year.
Consider Bennell’s Round 14 game against Geelong last year — six goals, 27 touches at 85 per cent, 11 marks.
If they would love another contested ball monster, they wouldn’t sniff at a goalkicking pacy midfielder who could be top-five in the competition on talent.
The problem for Richmond and clubs like Essendon right now is getting in front of him.
He has been back home in the West Australian town of Mandurah and will head overseas on Wednesday for a week, reluctant to meet clubs so far.
By next week those interested parties will have done their due diligence — spoken to former teammates and coaches, assessed the lay of the land.
They might also have considered a decision they made six years ago on a young tearaway called Dustin Martin.
They knew he was tucked away in a draft box labelled High Maintenance, but they also knew what he could become.
Could Bennell mature under the guidance of the intense but inspirational Mark “Choco” Williams like Martin before him?
Richmond has enough irons in fires that it could easily pass on Bennell, especially if he won’t do everything in his power to get in front of clubs and convince them he can change.
But in a weak draft, five draftees stockpiled from last year’s version, with an improved club culture surrounding Bennell, it would be a risk worth taking for the Tigers.
Premierships are won on luck and strategy and hard work, but there has never been a time in football when the A-Grade talent on your list hasn’t meant more than those factors combined.
http://www.themercury.com.au/harley-bennell-chris-yarran-could-be-richmonds-missing-premiership-link/story-fnj3twbb-1227539167415
