Tigers get Andrew Moore, and don't need moreJake Niall
The Age
October 29, 2015In the coming days, the Tigers are expected to announce they have signed delisted free agent Andrew Moore on a modest one-year contract.
As a strong 189-centimetre midfielder, Moore fits Richmond's needs – anyone who watched the Tigers succumb to North in September could see their need for size and grunt around the ball, for someone to provide a chaperone for Trent Cotchin and Brett Deledio.
But as a castaway from Port Adelaide, Moore, pick No.9 in the 2009 national draft, doesn't fit the expectations of those who believed the Tigers needed a big-ticket item in addition to Chris Yarran.
Moore would bring the Richmond post-season haul to three players from other clubs, Yarran having landed safely at Punt Road after a game of trading-deadline chicken between the Tigers and Blues. Jacob Townsend, another sturdy midfielder who struggled for opportunities, was acquired from Greater Western Sydney in exchange for a late pick.
In normal circumstances, picking up Yarran and another pair of cheap, speculative midfielders would be viewed as a fair result, with potential to be better than that in the event that Yarran knuckles down and if Moore or Townsend is successfully recycled in the manner of Anthony Miles, Shaun Grigg and Bachar Houli. Richmond's situation, alas, can't be classified as "normal" because the Tigers have the highest expectations – based on pent-up demand built over three decades – of any Victorian club. They were meant to win a final. They couldn't. They were meant to land Adam Treloar. They didn't.
They flirted with Harley Bennell, an A-grade talent with Z-grade baggage, before deciding discretion was the better part of valour and leaving him to the Dockers.
If the failure to secure another "name" made them less sexy than Geelong or Collingwood, the upshot was the Tigers acted with restraint. While some of this restraint was forced by Treloar's decision to choose another club, there were plenty of observers who expected Richmond to be desperate and dateless, offering pick 12 for anyone they thought might help win an extra game. At the close of trading, they'd secured Yarran and kept pick 12.
Far from representing a trading loss, the Tigers had succeeded in a) recruiting a proven 24-year-old of considerable talent who can improve their team and b) retaining their first draft pick. This is not as easy as it sounds. Richmond kept their recruiting within a needs-based framework, rather than lashing out opportunistically – which is never wise.
The external – and even internal – pressure on Richmond to secure another player of substance (not Jake Carlisle) was considerable. Yet, in reality, their need for a trophy recruit was no greater than, say, the Bulldogs.
Richmond's playing list is relatively young for a team that made finals. Deledio, 29 next year, is their oldest elite player and is in near-showroom condition. Time's winged chariot isn't hurrying near Tigerland. They can see how 2016 unfolds and, if there's the right player, have another crack.
It should be noted, too, that no premiership has yet been delivered by the arrival of a million-dollar baby. The biggest names who have helped deliver the grail over the past dozen years are probably Shaun Burgoyne and Brad Ottens. Hawthorn's success has been in locating players who filled particular roles, such as Josh Gibson, Jack Gunston and Brian Lake.
Whatever Richmond wanted and couldn't get, their post-season could follow the plan set out by the Rolling Stones: you get what you need.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tigers-get-andrew-moore-and-dont-need-more-20151028-gkkxvj.html
