Tigers open themselves to poaching raidHerald-Sun
May 9, 2016RICHMOND has a worrying 22 players still out of contract this year, including its entire middle tier and four first-round draft selections.
After the Tigers’ poor start to the season, managers are keen to assess their players’ position but the club is also happy to delay some talks.
Richmond’s list has been the subject of intense speculation and Punt Rd was dubbed ‘‘The Home of the List Cloggers” by former Tigers assistant coach David King before Friday night’s sixth successive loss.
The ruck division, the key-position players and high draft picks Nick Vlastuin, Corey Ellis, Reece Conca and Ty Vickery are yet to sign.
It will give list manager Blair Hartley and football boss Dan Richardson maximum flexibility as they chart a way forward for the Tigers.
But the delay hands clubs a real chance of poaching unsecured players.
Vickery, Conca, Ben Griffiths and David Astbury have been targets in the past.
Despite reports he is out of contract, Hartley, tasked with luring players from other clubs, has a deal until the end of next year.
Every club has a third or more of its list coming out of contract each year, but Richmond’s position is extreme.
Richardson admitted last week the club had a decision to make about luring a big fish or going back to the draft to secure a young star.
“The list strategy won’t change,’’ he said.
“Clearly we need to improve our top-end talent and the best way to do that is through early draft picks, which we don’t know whether we’ve got yet, or bringing in some A-grade talent and to do that you need to give up early draft picks to get that talent in.
“If it does turn out that we get ... a top-10 pick, then clearly that gives us more currency to either bring in an established player or recruit a high-end talent through the draft.”
Vlastuin, sixth in last year’s Jack Dyer Medal, has become one of Richmond’s most reliable medium-sized defenders, but neither party is in a rush to starts talks.
He is expected to sign another deal at Richmond.
The Herald Sun understands Bachar Houli is now contracted until the end of 2017 after fulfilling a trigger clause in his contract.
Houli has been one of the club’s most consistent defenders but after a series of turnovers this year has been symptomatic of their current malaise.
The Tigers had hoped to stockpile a strong band of developing talls that would give them a powerful hand at the trade table.
But free agent Vickery, Griffiths, VFL regular Liam McBean and defenders Astbury and Jake Batchelor have stagnated.
Astbury started the season strongly but was dropped last week.
Richmond’s two 30-plus players, Troy Chaplin and Ivan Maric, are uncontracted and have uncertain futures.
Maric has been badly hampered by a back injury and Chaplin is coming to the end of a four-year deal, having provided excellent service in 2013-14.
GRAB A TIGER
Out of contract players include:Nick Vlastuin
Reece Conca
Ty Vickery
Troy Chaplin
Shaun Grigg
David Astbury
Ben Griffiths
Sam Lloyd
Kane Lambert
Jake Batchelor
Corey Ellis
Liam McBean
Shaun Hampson
Andrew Moore
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