Brett Deledio says everything seems up in the air at Richmond TigersRonny Lerner
The Age
18 August 2016Richmond veteran Brett Deledio has admitted that "everything seems up in the air at the moment" at his club as the Tigers' 2016 campaign draws to a close.
After three consecutive finals series, Richmond will miss out on the September action this year on the back of an underwhelming season which has produced just the eight wins to date.
As a result it is expected that a large number of players and support staff will be shown the door at the end of the year.
Despite having to contend with all of the "outside pressures", Deledio said that the mindset of the playing group was "pretty good".
"It is a challenge for our leadership group to make sure that we're all staying on the right path and seeing not just the mistakes but the good things that we're doing week to week and really trying to drive the group to set ourselves up for this upcoming pre-season and next year," Deledio told RSN on Thursday.
There has been much speculation surrounding Deledio's own future this year with AFL greats such as Jason Dunstall, Matthew Lloyd and Tim Watson all suggesting Richmond should consider trading the former No.1 draft pick.
Deledio dismissed reports he had recently met with North Melbourne as "hearsay and rumour" and revealed that rumours linking him to a move to Greater Western Sydney were having an impact on his family.
"I was watching 'Dimma' [coach Damien Hardwick on Fox Footy program] On The Couch the other night and it come up about GWS and my wife only caught the end of it and she goes, 'I don't think I can move to GWS, I don't know anyone up there, we're going to have another child, I'm not going to have any support or anything like that'," Deledio said.
"I said, 'Darling, cool your jets, I think the coach just said I won't be going anywhere, let's not get too carried away'."
The two-time All-Australian is resigned to the fact that his name will be brought up in trade talk for the next few months.
"I'm aware, it's in the paper, it's something that I don't need to really stress about too much ... I think it's all part and parcel of game, really," he said.
Deledio also backed Hardwick's bold declaration that he expected Richmond to return to the finals next year.
"If you don't set the bar high then what have you got to aim for? I'm not in this industry or in this game to scratch around with the turkeys," Deledio said.
"I'm interested in playing finals and winning finals so I fully support him and believe what he says."
Despite missing a career-high 11 games this season due to injury, Deledio denied he was injury prone and the 29-year-old insisted he had not lost confidence in his body.
"It has been a challenging year because this is the first time since I first started playing footy that I've missed half a season. I'm not used to it," Deledio said.
"I've just had an unlucky run, I certainly think that I've got plenty of good footy left in me and I'm certainly looking forward to a big pre-season and playing every game next year."
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/brett-deledio-says-everything-seems-up-in-the-air-at-richmond-tigers-20160818-gqv9z5.html
