Some Richmond discussion in Caro's interview with Krak in today's Age......How football saved Krakouer Caroline Wilson
October 21, 2010http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-football-saved-krakouer-20101020-16u8u.htmlAndrew Krakouer joined Gerard Neesham's trail-blazing Clontarf Academy at 16, was selected by South Fremantle and was already the father of a baby girl, initially leaving his partner Barbara and daughter at home in Perth when he joined Richmond with that club's third draft pick before the 2001 season.
''I'm glad he's in, in one sense, but I'm also worried,'' Neesham said at the time. 'He's atypical of the whole system and Richmond's picked him on a wing and a prayer.
''He's only played seven Colts games, it's ludicrous that he's been picked, really.''
Says Krakouer now of his teenaged journey to Melbourne: ''I didn't know what to expect I was pretty young. It was an unknown world to me. Probably looking back I didn't do things to the best of my ability. Certainly my fitness levels are a lot better than they were then.''
Neesham cautiously supported Richmond's handling of his former charge - who lived with his mother Fiona Krakouer when he first moved to Melbourne - and felt that should he survive the AFL system through to 21 then Richmond would have a 10-year player on its hands.
But he could not have foreseen the ugly family feud that led to the events that took place in Fremantle just before Christmas 2006, when Andrew was 23. Nor could former North Melbourne champion Jimmy, who in those early days at Tigerland would occasionally call his son's coach Danny Frawley from Perth's maximum security Casuarina Prison and plead with Frawley to work his son hard. ''Make sure he has a real crack,'' he would say.''Don't let him waste his life.''
At the end of 2007, six seasons later, after 102 games with the Tigers, Krakouer was delisted, spending his final year with Richmond with the serious assault charge hanging over him.
Full article at:http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-football-saved-krakouer-20101020-16u8u.html