Veteran Simmonds earns stayGreg Denham | September 11, 2009 | The Australian
RICHMOND will offer veteran ruckman Troy Simmonds a one-year contract to continue his career in 2010 ....
The fact Richmond has extremely inexperienced ruckmen under Simmonds has earned the 31-year-old a stay.
Also in Simmonds's favour was that he was able to resume from another injury to play the final two rounds of the season where he was handy with 41 hit-outs and 29 disposals.
Richmond general manager of football operations Craig Cameron yesterday said Simmonds would be offered a new deal early next week when he returns from an overseas holiday.
"We just feel that our other ruckmen are too young to leave them to their own devices at this stage of their careers," Cameron said.
Apart from Simmonds, the Tigers big-man brigade consists of Angus Graham, 22, who has played 18 games, Tyrone Vickery, 19, who played nine games in his debut season, and Andrew Browne, 19, who played his one and only game for the club in the opening round this year.
Simmonds, who has just completed a five-year contract, will now get the chance to achieve the 200-game milestone next year in a career which started with Melbourne in 1999 and included a three-year stint with Fremantle.
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