Tigers on the prowl in PNG
By Tony Greenberg
2:44 PM Thu 17 Feb, 2011
Richmond is casting its recruiting net over Papua New Guinea.
The Tigers have put two Papua New Guinean teenagers - Gideon Simon and Nathan Malbak - on their international rookie list, and are keen to add more in the future.
Richmond’s recruiting manager, Francis Jackson, and recruiting officer, Matt Clarke, have been heavily involved in setting up the Tigers’ foray into the promising PNG football market.
“When I started at the Club two years ago, Francis had just been in Queensland watching the Queensland under-18 championships, for them to pick their side to go to the nationals. He came back talking about a couple of PNG kids that he’d seen, who had a bit of potential,” Clarke said.
“Anyway, we had a bit of a talk about football in PNG, and then I contacted Ray Hall (former Richmond player), who was over there on a youth ambassador program. He said he was about to coach an under-16 PNG team that was going to play in the Queensland championships, and I told him I’d come over and assist.
“I went to Brisbane, watched them play, and helped out as much as I could. And, that’s where I first saw Gideon, at those championships . . .
“So, I came back and said to Frank that I reckon there’s something well worth pursuing there. I spoke to Craig Cameron (Richmond’s General Manager of Football), who asked where I rated the PNG boys talent-wise, and I told him I think they’re better than the NSW kids. He agreed that it was worthwhile going ahead with a recruiting program there.
“From there, we checked out the international scholarship rules, and then we put some pressure on the AFL to set up a football academy in PNG.
“They got the academy up and going at the start of last year and had 16 boys in it . . . they picked them from a talent camp they hold each December. They rank the best 50 kids and then, like a draft lottery, if AFL clubs want to get involved, they go into a ballot . . .
“Because most of the other clubs hadn’t worried about it, we had two early picks, and we chose Gideon first and then Nathan.
“Gideon just reminded me so much of David Rodan . . . power, speed, clean with his hands, impressive kicking skills, and a really nice kid, with a strong family background. I was really keen to sign him.
“And I’d seen Nathan playing across half-back, as well as up forward in one game, where he kicked four goals. He marked the ball really well, made good decisions . . . he floated in and out of the game, and didn’t have the same sort of intensity that Gideon has, but he just had really nice hands.”
Having started the recruiting ball rolling in PNG by signing the promising teenage pair, the Tigers then travelled to Tonga to monitor their performance in the Oceania under-16 championships just before Christmas.
“PNG absolutely brained them in the championships, and Gideon smashed them,” Clarke said.
“Graeme Hadley, who is Brisbane’s recruiting manager, came up to me and said, ‘I watched Gideon at the start of the week and though, gee, he’s a good player. And, now, I’ve watched him for a whole week, and I reckon he could play AFL footy’.” That’s how impressed he was with him.”
Gideon Simon then quickly caught the eye of the Tigers, when he trained with the playing squad at Punt Road for a week recently, along with Nathan Malbak . . .
“We were training at Bulleen, in the week leading up to the Indigenous All Stars game, and the players were going through a couple of handball drills - one-on-one stuff,” Clarke said.
‘Dimma’ (Damien Hardwick) was watching him and looking at me. Then he said, ‘Mate, he’s killing them . . . can I play him Friday night (against the All Stars)’? I said that technically we could - he is a listed player - but he’s only 16!
“The boys absolutely loved their time here and our blokes were really good interacting with them, too.
“They coped with the training extremely well, particularly for 16-year-old boys.
“Dave Newett (the Club’s development coach) spent a good deal of time with them, working on their kicking, and Terry Condon (rehabilitation and conditioning) did a screening of their bodies, which showed that they’re in the top five among our whole group in terms of not having any structural issues with their bodies . . .”
The pair will be returning to Australia mid-year to represent South Pacific in the national under-16 championships and they’ll also spend time at Punt Road. Next year, they may do their schooling at De La Salle College in Malvern on an exchange program and play VFL football with the Tigers.
In the meantime, Richmond will press ahead with its PNG recruiting plan . . .
“It’s exciting . . . PNG is only two and a half hours from Brisbane, and there are a lot of PNG kids playing in the QAFL system,” Clarke said.
“They require a lot less coaching because there’s been an Aussie Rules culture in PNG for 40-50 years.
“Hawthorn are going really hard in New Zealand in terms of their international scholarship program . . . New Zealand’s got a population of 4.4 million, while PNG’s got 5.8 million people and a really strong Aussie Rules competition all over . . .
“I was back at the PNG talent camp last December and saw another couple of kids I didn’t mind, so we’ll keep pushing it.
“The two boys we’ve picked already are on minimum two-year contracts, so we’ll see how they go after that. If they’re going okay, we can re-contract them.
“We can have up to eight international rookies, so we might add another one or two from the academy next year.”
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