Tigers not firm on pre-season pick

[tiga]

Tigers not firm on pre-season pick
3:50:21 PM Tue 29 November, 2005
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au

Richmond is yet to finalise its plans for the AFL’s pre-season draft on December 13.

The Tigers, who passed on their fourth pick at last Saturday’s National Draft (selection 67 overall) may opt for a rookie ahead of a proven player in the pre-season draft, or they may not even participate.

 
“Our pre-season draft choice is still up in the air at the moment,” said the Club’s Director of Football Greg Miller.

“We may find a rookie that we think is worth taking as a pre-season pick – we may not. We may even go left field on that. It’s something we’re continuing to weigh up.

“We’re considering all possibilities . . . we’re not declaring who we’re taking, or if we’re taking anyone at all.

“As I said, it doesn’t exclude one of our rookies, who we think instead of waiting to take at choice five in the rookie draft, we could take at choice five in the pre-season draft . . .”

Richmond held a ‘rookie-search’ day at Punt Road last Sunday to help narrow its selection options at the rookie draft, which also will take place on December 13 (following the pre-season draft).

The Tigers put 35 young players through a series of programs, including strength, speed, endurance and ball work, under the watchful eye of coach Terry Wallace.

“With the knowledge that we already had of these boys, combined with what we learned from Sunday, we were able to reduce our list of draft possibilities down from 35 to about a dozen. They’ll form the basis of our rookie draft plans,” Miller said.

“Certainly, it won’t stop us from watching rookie prospects training at other clubs, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on the dozen we’ve pinpointed training with us over the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to the December 13 rookie draft.”

http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=238895

[tiga]

For a man who says a lot, he doesn't say much!  ???

Might as well have said "No comment"

Miller you cagey bugger.!

[mightytiges]

Thankfully it won't be used on either Haynes or Bullen.

[the_boy_jake]

Richmond held a ‘rookie-search’ day at Punt Road last Sunday to help narrow its selection options at the rookie draft, which also will take place on December 13 (following the pre-season draft).

The Tigers put 35 young players through a series of programs, including strength, speed, endurance and ball work, under the watchful eye of coach Terry Wallace.

Sounds like a good idea... is this the first time we have tried it on such a scale?

[WilliamPowell]

Sounds like a good idea... is this the first time we have tried it on such a scale?

Tezza said at the THC function on Monday night that he did this at the Bulldogs. Don't think we did it last year. He also added that he didn't think that any other club's were doing the same thing

[mightytiges]

“With the knowledge that we already had of these boys, combined with what we learned from Sunday, we were able to reduce our list of draft possibilities down from 35 to about a dozen. They’ll form the basis of our rookie draft plans,” Miller said.

“Certainly, it won’t stop us from watching rookie prospects training at other clubs, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on the dozen we’ve pinpointed training with us over the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to the December 13 rookie draft.”

Apparently it's down to nine and according to a guy on the BF draft board (link), two of them are Coburg's Jarrod Sylvester and another Calder Cannon in small pacy midfielder Matt White.

I'd suppose the others will come from the likes of:  
Jace Bode
Sam Eliott
Todd Grima
Ryan Jackson
Brad Kelleher
Tim Looby
Luke McEntee
Tom Rischbieth
James Wall

McEntee and Wall are potential ruckmen.

[Razorblade]

Wallace would love White, very fast, great stamina and his a guy who can run the lines!

IIRC though his had a few problems with injury!

Also i think i read somewhere that McEntree is training with the Crows and that they are keen on him (god knows why though, they already have a lot of junior ruckmen!)

[mightytiges]

The Crows have a few - Bode, Redden, McEntree, Grima, Rischbieth, Elliot and a few more. We and most clubs for that matter will have a rookie pick before them though.

Wallace would love White, very fast, great stamina and his a guy who can run the lines!

White's only small though - 178cm, 74kg. I personally think the direction of modern footy is making it very hard for those under 180cm to make it at AFL level. That's why I have a question mark over Foley and Rodan.

I'd rather go tall more in the rookie draft.

[Razorblade]

<180cm players can make it in the "new" AFL game, but if they're not a specialist FP player they need to be fast as lightning, or be tremendously skilled, this is why i have a ? over Foley, although in that Dogs game he came off as very fast, i didn't think he was!

[mightytiges]

<180cm players can make it in the "new" AFL game, but if they're not a specialist FP player they need to be fast as lightning, or be tremendously skilled, this is why i have a ? over Foley, although in that Dogs game he came off as very fast, i didn't think he was!

Agree Razor that <180cm players need to be super-quick and have freakish skills to play. Akermanis is a prime example of that. It's harder for them to win their own footy against the bigger body modern midfielders so they need those advantages to gain possession. Just look at our own midfield to see the size of some modern day midfielders - Cogs (187), Tuck (188), Johnson (186) and Lids (188). And in Lids case he's a super-skilled 188cm lightning bolt! Makes it tough for the "shorties" in the future.