Tigers look at ex-Saint for coaching roleDaniel Cherny
The Age
4 October 2016 6:30pmRichmond have spoken to Xavier Clarke about the prospect of the former St Kilda and Brisbane Lions utility joining the Tigers' coaching panel.
Clarke, 33, has been in Melbourne this week as he looks to join an AFL coaching group for the first time. The one-time No.5 draft pick has been coaching NEAFL club NT Thunder since the end of 2013, leading the side to the 2015 premiership.
It's understood the Tigers have been looking at Clarke to fill one of the several spots available on their coaching panel. Should Clarke be successful, it's likely he would take on a development role at Punt Road. He would also be reunited with former Saints teammate and now-Richmond development coach Andrew McQualter.
The Tigers' coaching panel underwent significant change at the end of the 2016 season following an extremely disappointing season in which the club won just eight games and finished 13th after making the finals in the three preceding years.
Assistant coaches Mark "Chocco" Williams, Ross Smith and Greg Mellor were all sacked by the club, while fellow assistant Brendon Lade also left the club to take up a role as Port Adelaide's ruck coach. The future of another assistant – Mark P. Williams – is unclear.
Justin Leppitsch – sacked at the end of the season after three unsuccessful seasons as Brisbane Lions coach – has been targeted by the Tigers for a return to Richmond, where he had been an assistant coach before assuming the Lions job at the end of 2013. The Tigers say they are keen to secure Leppitsch's services again, provided he is in the right frame of mind after his challenging experience at the Gabba.
The Tigers have already added highly rated Geelong assistant Blake Caracella to their coaching panel, luring the dual premiership player after seven seasons at the Cats. Caracella has again teamed up with Neil Balme, who recently left Collingwood to join the Tigers as their football department chief. Caracella and Balme worked together at the Cats before Balme left Geelong after the 2014 season.
Recently retired Richmond backman Troy Chaplin has also been linked to a role on the new-look Tigers coaching panel, as has former Western Bulldogs assistant Brett Montgomery, who was an unsuccessful candidate to replace Leppitsch as Lions senior coach. That job ultimately went to outgoing Hawthorn football department boss Chris Fagan.
Tigers senior coach Damien Hardwick has two seasons to run on his contract but another year of failure in 2017 appears likely to spell a premature end to his tenure. The Tigers conducted a review of their football department in the wake of their underperformance this year. Balme was hired as part of the restructure that stemmed from the review.
Clarke played 105 games for St Kilda and one for the Lions over a decade at the elite level. He would be a rare Indigenous appointee to an AFL coaching panel. In 2016 there were just two Indigenous coaches on AFL club panels: Roger Hayden at Fremantle and Andy Lovell at Gold Coast.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-look-at-former-st-kilda-player-xavier-clarke-for-coaching-role-20161004-grus7r.html
