Massive day looms for Tigers
11:04:05 AM Fri 19 November, 2004
Paul Gough
Sportal/exclusive to afl.com.au
It's hardly an understatement to say Saturday's National Bank AFL Draft shapes as one of the most important days in the recent history of the Richmond football club.
The Tigers, once the undisputed kings of the competition with five premierships between 1967-80, have given their army of fanatical fans little to cheer since then with just two finals appearances since the losing 1982 grand final against Carlton.
But after finishing bottom in 2004 and then seeing ruckman Brad Ottens depart to Geelong, the Tigers have the luxury of four first round draft picks in this year's draft - the first time any club has ever had so many valuable early picks.
With five picks in the first 20 selections overall, the Tigers have the luxury of selecting the cream of Australia's footballing talent on Saturday as they look to re-build a playing list that was the worst in the competition last year.
If the Tigers get it right on Saturday, they could grab themselves some future champions and lay the foundations under new coach Terry Wallace for the kind of sustained success their fans so desperately crave.
But while Saturday shapes as an exciting day for anyone associated with Richmond, there is also a sense of trepidation as well as fans realise the club will never get a better opportunity to grab some future champions as they will on Saturday.
And given the Tigers' history at the national draft since its inception in 1986, the club will be under plenty of pressure to make sure it gets it right this time.
From the time the Tigers selected Richard Anderson from SANFL club Norwood at pick four in the inaugural 1986 national draft, the Tigers have had little return out of their prized early draft picks.
The following year the Tigers had the first pick after finishing last in 1987 but used it on a lumbering SA ruckman Richard Lounder, who could manage just four games.
And while they did unearth a star at pick 27 that year in Brendon Gale - who would go on to play 244 games and become one of the Tigers' most respected players over the next decade - such draft success stories have been very much the exception rather than the norm at Punt Road.
Again the club had the number one pick in 1989 but defender Anthony Banik never lived up to his early promise while in 1991 the Tigers produced arguably their all-time worst drafting performance.
Not only did they give up their first three draft picks (numbers three, 16 and 42) to rival clubs for Steve O'Dwyer, Stevan Jackson and Todd Breman - who between them played just 50 games for the Tigers - but their seven draft picks that year did not play a single game for the club between them.
Is it any wonder the Tigers struggled so badly on the field during that period but once the club began to get its drafting right the on-field performances soon lifted as the club reached the 1995 preliminary final and only missed out on a place in the finals in 1994, 1996 and 1998 by losing the game of the season.
Matthew Rogers came at pick 37 in 1992, Paul Broderick and Michael Gale came in a trade from Fitzroy in 1994 while Mark Chaffey was found at pick 35 in 1996 and Andrew Kellaway at pick 71 in 1997.
But the Tigers dramatic fall down the ladder since the 2001 preliminary final - they have finished 14th, 13th and 16th in the past three years - can be traced back to more poor drafting and trading decisions since 1998.
In 1998 the Tigers gave up their first two picks (numbers eight and 24) for Craig Biddiscombe and the injury-plagued Rory Hilton while their next pick that year yielded James White, who played just four games.
And the club has had to wear plenty of criticism for its drafting in the next three years when it chose Aaron Fiora (recently traded to St Kilda) instead of Matthew Pavlich at pick three in 1999, Kayne Pettifer with its first pick in 2000 while in the stellar 2001 draft which produced the likes of Chris Judd, Luke Hodge, Luke Ball, Nick Dal Santo and James Bartel, the Tigers gave up their first round selection for Greg Stafford and their third round pick for Paul Hudson.
But with the highly-respected Greg Miller now in charge of football operations, the Tigers have shown signs they are again getting their drafting right with some of last year's intake such as Daniel Jackson, Brent Hartigan, Tom Roach and Andrew Raines already giving the indication they have long and successful careers ahead of them.
Add to them the likes of Mark Coughlan, Chris Newman, David Rodan, Chris Hyde and Jay Schulz - all of whom will still be aged under 23 at the start of next season - and there is little doubt the Tigers have plenty of potentially long-term players already on their list.
Now they will just be hoping the 2004 national draft yields a few more and not the wasted early draft picks that have so often returned to haunt the Tigers.
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