Tiger fans ready for Ottens
23 March 2005
Herald Sun
Scott Gullan
BRAD Ottens describes it as the kick in the backside he needed.
With just four days to his debut for Geelong against his former club, Ottens has revealed his controversial move to Skilled Stadium was motivated by a need to extract himself from a career-threatening slump.
"The way I thought was this might give me a kick in the arse," Ottens said.
"It had been a frustrating last couple of years, both personally and from a team perspective as well.
"I was going through the motions and wasn't getting as much out of my footy as I would have liked and that's for a lot of reasons."
Ottens stops short of blaming anyone in particular for his state of mind during his last few seasons at Punt Rd, adding that injuries and the Tigers' slide down the ladder were part of the equation.
"I had that one good year and then went cold, which was a bit frustrating," he said in reference to his All-Australian season of 2001.
"I've had a couple of injuries since then, but that's not making any excuses.
"I was just frustrated with the way I was playing.
"I was still playing reasonable footy, but I wasn't playing to the standard that I had set and then it just dropped away.
"You can make all the excuses you want, there were a lot of factors and it's not just not winning or injuries."
The argument many Richmond fans push when it comes to Ottens is why did the 202cm ruckman need to leave for a change of direction when that's exactly what new coach Terry Wallace was bringing to Punt Rd.
"The place won't really change that much," Ottens said. "I don't say that in a bad way because I don't have any hard feelings.
"I just know I made my decision for the right reasons. People might say I have looked after myself but moving was the best thing for me to do.
"Something needed to change because I didn't want to go through another season (like that).
"I didn't want to spend five years playing a few good games, going through the motions and then getting to the end of my career and saying, `I wish I had done something else'.
"I'm comfortable with it and I expect people to respect my decision."
There have already been murmurings down at Geelong about the boom recruit's pre-season form but coach Mark Thompson is calling for patience.
"It is just ridiculous this expectation," Thompson said. "It just craps the hell out of me to be honest.
"You shouldn't put it all on one person.
"We never got him here to kick 70 goals and that won't happen. It will never happen.
"We got him here to play in the forward line, take a good defender, play some time in the ruck with Steven King and kick us one goal a game, one and a half goals a game, with 20 to 30 goals being a very good effort for the season.
"(He) makes us dangerous because there's not too many other clubs with two very good ruckmen in the team. It is a real weapon for us."
Thompson said Ottens, who has had All-Australian full-back Matthew Scarlett working him over on the training track, had improved steadily in the pre-season, which was highlighted by a four-goal last quarter in a practice match against Adelaide.
"He has definitely got better, week by week," he said.
"It is hard for big guys to get into the game pretty early with new players.
"I'm not going to judge him on practice games or the first game or his second game.
"He will be judged over a three-year period and I know he will improve as a player."
Ottens can expect a fiery reception from the Tiger faithful at the MCG on Sunday, with anger about how the club had invested seven years in him only for him to leave when he should be at his peak at 25 and with 129 games to his name.
Adding fuel to the fire is the suggestion he went for the money after the Tigers wanted to snip $150,000 a year off his new contract.
With the Cats crying out for a tall forward, and having the cash to spend, the pair became a perfect fit.
The Tigers did the trade in exchange for national draft picks No. 12 (which Geelong received from Melbourne in exchange for Brent Moloney) and No. 16.
Ottens admits to being surprised when the AFL draw came out and had him facing his old club first-up.
"I was very surprised but those things seem to happen," he said.
"At least I'm going to have a bit of an idea on who I will be playing on. And I don't have to wait for long to get it out of the way. It should be interesting."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,12629673%255E19742,00.html
