Tigers are 35 years into a five-year-plan, say Richmond board challengersMichael Gleeson
The Age
5 Sept. 2016A group of Richmond supporters who are seeking a spill of the board want to keep coach Damien Hardwick but force him to change his game plan.
The Focus on Football ticket, led by cardiologist Martin Hiscock with former premiership players Bruce Monteath and Bryan Wood, also say they wanted to appoint Collingwood football manager and former Tigers premiership player Neil Balme to a chief executive of football role.
They have yet to speak to Balme about the position.
The group would also speak with former premiership player and veteran coach Michael Malthouse about the chief executive of football role, but Balme remained their priority.
They said they were keen for chief executive Brendon Gale to keep his job as well as football manager Dan Richardson who had two more years on his contract, but they wanted all but two of the existing board to go.
"We are 35 years into a five-year plan, people laugh at it but unfortunately it's true," Monteath said.
"How long is bad luck? From 1999 to the present day and we will name just four picks - we could probably name 20 - but just four picks who were top 10 picks and they were the next pick after (the one) Richmond had: one was Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle), one was Lance Franklin (Hawthorn/Sydney), one was Jordan Lewis (Hawthorn) and one was Dyson Heppell (Essendon)."
Hiscock added there had been four reviews in the past eight years and the current review was being undertaken by an accounting firm of which a Richmond board member was a partner and was therefore conflicted.
"The Richmond Football Club is in crisis. Never has a year promised so much yet delivered so little," Hiscock said.
He said the club's top five players - Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Alex Rance, Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt – would not be traded under any circumstances.
"We would never get rid of our top players, our top A-list players. We have to recruit in a more savvy manner, a lot more savvy manner. There has to be a lot more spent on player development; that has been really lacking at the Tigers. Look at Conca, Vickery, Lennon, just delisted," Hiscock said.
He said the club's board was self-satisfied and continued to praise its own performance, but real success was what happened on the field and real change would only happen by "rolling the board".
"Richmond Football Club sits at a 35-year crossroad. It either continues down the same path as the most unsuccessful team in the competition or it takes a new road, one that sees it playing in and winning premierships," Hiscock said.
The group pointed out that when the Tigers finished on the bottom in 2004, Hawthorn had been second bottom. One club had made good recruiting decisions, the other club was Richmond.
"Why did it even contemplate a road to nowhere with mature age recruits - a knowingly flawed strategy that has left the Tigers with no depth in their list and left the club unable to regenerate while staying competitive?
"Recruiting has been a failure; the club has just delisted three relatively recent first-round draft picks (Conca, Lennon, Vickery) further confirmation that player development has been poor.
"There is inadequate assessment of players and staff. We want unity in the team and between the players and their coaches. We want the coaching game plan to change."
Hiscock said there was disunity between some players and the assistant coaches and queried the decision to offer a new one-year contract offer to (coaching assistant) Brendon Lade.
"It's been difficult keeping pace with all the mixed messages from Punt Road," Hiscock said.
"If football isn't taken a lot more seriously down there, it won't be top eight next year it will be bottom four."
He said the club believed the new CEO of football could work with Damien Hardwick – who remained contracted for two more years – to get the best out of him.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/richmond-board-challenge-were-35-years-into-a-fiveyearplan-says-focus-on-football-group-20160905-gr8xtl.html
