Tigers need to look far and wide in rebuildJON RALPH
Herald Sun
July 6, 2016GREAT teams are generated by great drafts.
For all the talk about elite coaches and development and strategy, if you don’t have the cattle you haven’t got a chance.
It is Richmond’s most pressing issue, greater even than what to do with Tyrone Vickery or how to build a more resilient game plan.
For Richmond, that doesn’t mean just taking five or six selections at the draft and hoping like hell they come good.
Sam Lloyd and Anthony Miles have been recruiting wins for Richmond. Picture: George Salpigtidis
It is using every measure available — the national draft, free agency, international recruits, the pre-season, rookie selections.
And in doing so changing their fortunes by adding five or six meaningful players to their list in one off-season triumph.
The Tigers will need to use all inventiveness and ruthlessness and left-field thinking to generate that haul, because in recent years that has been non-existent.
Perhaps spooked by the catastrophic recruiting failures of the past, the Tigers have been safe to the point of boring.
In the meantime its rivals have thrived by thinking outside the square.
The team that took the field against Port Adelaide had just one triumph of its three rookies (Anthony Miles) as well depth player Kane Lambert and promising kid Jayden Short.
It had not a single marquee free agent (Troy Chaplin toiled away in the VFL) while rivals stock up on stars who cost them not a single draft pick.
It had no Irish experiments like Ciaran Byrne or Zach Tuohy or Pearce Hanley.
It had no international experiments like Mason Cox or Jason Holmes or Mike Pyke, although at least the Tigers had a crack at Cox in late 2014.
It had a single success story plucked late in the draft — Sam Lloyd (pick 66) — as one of only two players in that entire team actually drafted by the Tigers later than 35.
And where the Dogs went out and plucked mature-aged WAFL defender Marcus Adams at pick 35, Richmond’s version (Nathan Broad, pick 67) pales in comparison.
If Richmond is prepared to review every facet of Damien Hardwick’s make-up before re-signing him, will it forensically review its recruiting team?
Are recruiter Francis Jackson and pro scout Blair Hartley (contracted for another year) the very best recruiters/list managers in the AFL?
Only the Tigers know but if not, the Tigers should spare no expense to get them.
A mature-age-recruit from VFL side Williamstown, Kane Lambert has been a success for the Tigers. Picture: Getty
No point lauding your debt-free status if you won’t use that cash building a flag.
Collingwood’s Derek Hine denies the Tigers have offered him a five-year deal, but if they haven’t they should.
Geelong’s premiership teams were built on two great years — 2001 (James Bartel, James Kelly, Steve Johnson, Gary Ablett) and 1999 (Joel Corey, Paul Chapman, Cam Ling, Corey Enright, the traded Cam Mooney).
Hawthorn did something similar in 2001 (Luke Hodge, Campbell Brown, Sam Mitchell) and 2004 (Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin, Jordan Lewis, Simon Taylor).
In late 2013 Adelaide secured Matt Crouch, elevated Rory Laird and acquired Eddie Betts, then a year later plucked Jake Lever (pick 14), Mitch McGovern, elevated Charlie Cameron and picked Kyle Cheney for a need.
In 2012 the Dogs recruited Jake Stringer (pick 5), Jackson Macrae (6), Nathan Hrovat (21), father-son Lachie Hunter (49), traded for Koby Stevens then elevated rookies Jason Johannisen and Tom Campbell.
The Tigers need a year like that Dogs one, which came when they had the bravery to trade away Brian Lake for mid-range picks and used every trick at their disposal.
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