Tigers' big draft of youth's elixir
14 November 2004
Sunday Herald Sun
IT all started with Richard Anderson. On November 28, 1986, Richmond snapped up Anderson, a 23-year-old Norwood rover, with pick four in the inaugural draft as the 12 recruiting managers officially convened for the first time in the old VFL House in Jolimont.
The Tigers held hopes they could lure Anderson to Victoria to be the missing spark to re-ignite a fading dynasty.
Instead, he signed up as a maths teacher in Port Pirie's St Marks College and never donned a Richmond jumper.
When No. 1 picks Richard Lounder and Anthony Banik bombed for the club, the trend had become worrying.
After the subsequent failure of Tiger first-rounders Wayne Hernaman, Damien Ryan and Pat Steinfort, the problem had become an epidemic.
Richmond, so famed for its ability to attract the cream of the crop in the 1960 and '70s, couldn't pick a first-round draft success if it was Wayne Carey incarnate.
As new coach Terry Wallace confesses, "it has been a reasonably sorry tale".
Something had to give.
This year's wooden spoon saw the Tigers absent from September for the 20th time since 1983, with the club trading four first-round picks in a decade and bartering another pick that would eventually give the Kangaroos Daniel Wells.
Even this season's prize signing came at considerable expense -- Nathan Brown could scarcely have been better for the Tigers, but still aged another year closer to 30 while Essendon looked to the future with the resultant No. 6 draft pick.
The circuit-breaker came with Wallace's five-year appointment and his mantra that Richmond had to finally stop plugging the gaps.
Instead, the foundations of the list had to be ripped away and built up from scratch.
Wallace has promised that under his rule no more will the Tigers top up with stop-gap players notable only for their ability to lose form when drafted to Punt Rd.
The departure of Brad Ottens means Richmond not only has the willingness but the opportunity to transform the club in one draft. With four selections in the first round and five of the top 20 picks, the club has never had a better opportunity to reinvent itself.
It could be argued Saturday's draft shapes as the most important day for the club's long-term hopes since the early 1980s. Wallace is determined to make the Tigers successful, but also to do it the right way.
"I think most supporters want to see you develop your own champions," he said.
"You are rapt when you see them play their first game, because you picked him early, you watch him play his 50th and 100th then all of a sudden he's a 250-game player.
"We will be developing our own champions of the future. We need to get the next Francis Bourkes and Royce Harts into the footy club."
That Richmond is able to do so to such an extent this year shows how much it has considered the big picture.
If it took the loss of Ottens, the most inviting ruck-forward big man in the game, so be it. The Tigers would accept only draft picks in return, and the suitable swap eventually became selections 12 and 16.
A ruck replacement was crucial, but through some nifty manoeuvring Fremantle's Troy Simmonds was acquired for unfulfilled flanker Aaron Fiora, rather than through a draft sacrifice.
If Simmonds can equal Ottens's recent ruck output in coming years, not an unrealistic expectation, the trade period will have almost delivered two first-round draft picks for the cost of only Fiora.
Wallace hopes to turn Ottens's desire to leave into a "trigger point" for success.
"When you look at the history of the draft, no one has ever had the four first-round draft picks before, so it takes a little bit of calculation and organisation at the best of times," he said.
"It would have been fairly simple when Brad was deciding to leave to say, 'OK, we will go down the path of getting some ready-made players in for now', but we were able to balance it off pretty well.
"I always said the Tigers were 12 months into their process because they got some very good players last year, so we have got a really good swipe at it this year."
Departing recruiting manager Greg Beck has ridden the highs and lows in his nine years at Richmond, but has the chance to leave a legacy.
His inspired draft picks last year included Alex Gilmour, Tom Roach, Daniel Jackson, Brent Hartigan and Andrew Raines, all of whom are highly regarded despite only a year in the system.
"The most important thing is that we get at least six kids through the door like we did last year, and with rookies we will have 14 young kids under 20 who will start to pave the way," Beck said.
"Hopefully, these drafts will dovetail into 2005 and, after three drafts, if you have kept your selections, over the history of the draft it has shown you will do OK."
So what type of players do the Tigers hope will kickstart their resurgence?
As well as their first five picks in the top 20, they head Rounds 3 to 6 of the draft with selections 35, 49, 60 and 65.
Brett Deledio's selection as a midfielder/forward seems a given, with two key talls and at least another developing ruckmen on the shopping list.
An experienced tall defender and ruckman seem certain additions, although which of these come in the pre-season draft remains to be seen.
Trent Knobel, Cain Ackland, Steve McKee and Mark Graham have been mentioned as possible stop-gap measures.
While the Tigers are keen to push the youth theme, Wallace defends the recruitment of mature players on three fronts: The club must achieve as much immediate success as possible without jeopardising its progress; the kids need experienced types around them to develop; and speculative late selections of youngsters require expensive two-year contracts that often are not justified.
The reams of data available on young prospects mean top-20 selections are guaranteed to have talent, but that is only half the battle.
Wallace and Richmond have both been burnt in the past by young guns who promised the world, but delivered little.
Ottens and Fiora had talent in spades, but never fulfilled expectations, while Wallace's raft of brilliantly talented Bulldogs still have work to do to justify the wraps.
"Development now is massive," Wallace said.
"It always should have been and has been at some clubs who have done it better. We bring them in and expect them to be ready-made players. I reckon they have still got at least four years of development before they are ready."
Just like the Carlton administrators of old, Wallace believes there is no such thing as pure rebuilding.
The minute you signal your intention to build purely for the future, it confuses players who live for the contest and disenchants fans who dream of premierships every year.
"You have got to have development at all stages as well as trying to win," he said. "You can't just say this is a development phase of our football club."
Richmond has the formula for success in its grasp, but that won't be enough.
As with anything in football, it's not the knowledge of the formula that is the key, but the execution.
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