OFFICIAL PICKS - National Draft

[mightytiges]

Big weekend for Deledio
20 November 2004   
Herald Sun
By Roger Vaughan

BRETT Deledio finished school yesterday and today was the No.1 AFL draft pick.

"A pretty good weekend, I'd say", was the droll summation from his new boss Terry Wallace.

As expected, Richmond used its priority pick at the head of the draft to pick up the midfielder from Kyabram, in central Victoria.

The Tigers then sought more young midfield talent, swooping on Darwin's Richard Tambling at No.4 after Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs looked elsewhere.

Richmond completed its main draft mission when it recruited Glenelg onballer/forward Danny Meyer at 12.

Wallace, the new Richmond coach, said the Tigers decided more than a week ago that they would go for Deledio with their opening pick, but kept their options open.

"It's an ongoing process, I spoke to him (Deledio) on the phone last Monday night and didn't give him much indication of which way it was actually going to go," Wallace said.

"We probably made a decision last Thursday, a week ago, but you just never know - you keep continuing to talk through things."

Richmond recruiting manager Greg Beck, who had his last day in the job today, rang Deledio last night to break the good news.

"I wasn't quite as anxious when I was sitting out there - it was a lot easier last night (as well)," Deledio said of the advance notice.

"It's fantastic, I am just glad to get a chance to play AFL."

While Richmond concentrated on youngsters, it also snared delisted Hawthorn key defender Mark Graham at 65.

Wallace described this as "a little bit of a top-up".

He added: "the only way that we'd have senior players coming into the football club was if they were stronger-bodied types, if they were taller types that could fill specific options."

While the Tigers were excited about their selections, Wallace warned against expecting too much, too early.

"I said from day one, if they're good enough to play, I will never hold them back ... but they're not trophies and the development of the players is the most important thing," he said.

"We won't put them on display in round one if they're not ready to go - we've got an investment here, where we hope these guys can be 10-year players for Richmond."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,11449988%255E20322,00.html

[mightytiges]

Tigers to the rescue for Graham
The Age
November 21, 2004

Mark Graham waited two months to find out if his AFL career would be rescued by a new club, but it was the extra two minutes yesterday that were the most painful.

Graham was listening to a live radio broadcast of the draft while training with the Richmond squad at Punt Road.

Having sat through the first 64 selections, Graham, delisted by Hawthorn in September, was eagerly anticipating Richmond's call of the 65th.

"And then they went to an ad break," he said.

"I didn't actually know they had called my name out because they went to a commercial."

Stuck in the Richmond weights room with no knowledge of who the Tigers had selected at 65, it was several minutes before the suspense was relieved.

"It wasn't until the secretary came out and said, 'Mark, it has all been done, congratulations' that I knew what had happened," he said.

"She went and told all the boys... I got a bit of cheer and a bit of applause. It was great."

Graham was the eighth and final player selected by Richmond yesterday.

He joins Brett Deledio, Richard Tambling and a host of the nation's best young talent on the new Richmond list.

After accepting a "no guarantees" invitation to train with Richmond over the pre-season, Graham became "semi-confident" of becoming a Tiger after a meeting with new coach Terry Wallace last week.

"A couple of days ago, he said to me, 'Listen, if everything goes to plan, this is how we are going to do it'... so the last few days have been pretty good because he gave me a fairly strong indication," he said.

Yesterday's lifeline - which is likely to result in a one-year contract - was vindication for Graham, who was wrongly announced as "retired" by Hawthorn when delisted by the club in September after 223 games, mainly as a defender.

Graham had to quickly inform rival clubs that he was keen to continue at a new home.

"I'm just happy that I know where I'm heading now. When your future is uncertain, it's kind of like you are wandering, whereas now I know exactly what's going on," he said.

"It's sensational, it's a structured sort of feeling, like I finally know what I'm doing."

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/11/20/1100838274497.html?from=storyrhs

[mightytiges]

Graham's an ordinary player and I don't see him making much difference to our leaky and relatively old backline along with Gas and Chubba. But if he can hold down a defensive post for 18+ games next year and allow a Kelvin Moore to develop properly then he's done his job. Now he's a Tiger good luck to him.

[blx]

how good does this centreline look....

Tambling --- Coughlan --- Deledio 

[mightytiges]

Welcome to OER blx   

how good does this centreline look....

Tambling --- Coughlan --- Deledio 

Does look good. All young and very talented footballers. What we all want introduced into our midfield  .