Richo and Tim Clarke discuss VFLMatthew Richardson sits down with VFL coach Tim Clarke gain an insight into the plans for Richmond's standalone VFL side for 2014.
VIDEO:
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2013-10-31/richo-and-tim-clarke-discuss-vfl-----------------------------------------------------------------
Richo: What are the benefits of having our own VFL side? Clarke: Having more control and not feeling guilty we are taking players off at half-time or playing a player that might not be ready for senior VFL. A good story is Gideon Simon this year; our PNG kid. If we had our own VFL side this year, he would've played each week. It's just too hard a sell to a Coburg that he needs to play VFL because he's a "Richmond" player. It's pretty hard on the Coburg-listed guys. Now we'll be able to play whoever we want in our side.
The other advantage is Punt Rd. I think they've got the tick to play games here next year. We've got work to do but to play games here and potential before AFL games is a massive plus for our footy club.
The other element, and perhaps we could've have done this at Coburg, but we can now go out and recruit players that will help our players with their development rather than go and align ourselves with another club and they are focused on their players. Now we can get guys that help our boys so we are really looking forward to it.
Have you already spoken to players that will be on that VFL list?Wayne Campbell and myself have been working on this for some time. We've just appointed a football manager that will start in November. Cambo has been speaking to guys pretty much all year to drum up the interest; been setting up things behind the scene which has been outstanding. So once the season finished, he was walking around with a smile on his face 'cause he's really thrown his energy at this. So we've got some guys who have agreed to play for us and we've still got three or four to get over the line. If we can do that then it'll be a really good environment.
How does it work integrating the AFL list?We want to try and create a one club feel. So we want our players on our VFL list as much as possible to come and train with our guys over preseason. It might be once or twice a month they get to know each other. The two teams will train separately. So the AFL team will train during the day and then the VFL guys will come and train three nights a week and train here over summer. The more we can incorporate our players to train together, the better the team will play when they come out together and the better the environment will be.
Will it be hard to up-speed those VFL guys on the structures that they will have to play at VFL level as they won't be full-time obviously?Yes it will be a bit of a challenge. As long as we can bring them up as much as we can so when they go out and play with our guys, not only can they understand what we want to do as a club, but they can also tell the 18 year old kid who has just been drafted - this is what you need to do at a stoppage or we want you do be doing this. So when he comes up and plays VFL, he has guys around him that are supporting him and talking to him so it's not unfamiliar when he goes up to senior [AFL] level and he's got a Trent Cotchin telling him to move to the right or a Jack Riewoldt telling him to push up the ground. So it's really important that we have this more senior style of player up to speed with our side.
Looking forward to being coach of the Richmond twos?Yeah it's great. It's a terrific club. We've got really good people around at the moment in positions in the footy department. It's a great place to work and I'm excited with the list we've got. They're really good kids. Hopefully we get some really good VFL players as well. It's the environment; it's an outstanding place to work and we're super excited about our VFL side.
And the ground here - you're definitely playing at Punt Rd Oval next year?The interface needs to be done but I think the Club's moving forward with doing everything it can to get it right by sort of April next year when we will be playing games. The surface is fine, it's just making sure the surrounding area is in the right state for the supporters to come here and watch.
You mentioned Wayne Campbell is your boss. How do you take instruction from that man? lolHard to take instruction from Cambo but I think he gets more annoyed with me constantly badgering about trying to do this and trying to do that.
He doesn't like to be told what to do does Wayne.No he doesn't but he's ridden the bumps with me this year has Cambo with the alignment. I think he has a lot of respect for the way we are trying to go about this. He's good to work with. Wait twelve months and I'll let you see how it goes.
