Chris Yarran was a recruiting risk Richmond had to take says David King as speedster quits to deal with mental healthBen Waterworth and Max Laughton
Foxsports
24 November 2016DESPITE ‘losing’ on the deal in a pure football sense, recruiting Chris Yarran was a risk that Richmond had to take according to an AFL champion.
The former Blue, who cost the Tigers two second-round picks in a series of trades during the 2015 trade period, exited the club in a mutual agreement on Tuesday to return home to Western Australia and deal with mental health issues.
The release prompted some media commentators to criticise the Tigers trade’, with some calling his recruitment a mistake.
But North Melbourne champion David King argued Yarran’s on-field ability was so necessary for the club that it had to take the chance.
“Of the lot of them, this was probably a purpose-picked player. They lacked a damaging half-back flanker, they didn’t have that aggressive game-changer, so this guy was perfect for their failings. It was a punt that they had to take,” King told foxfooty.com.au.
“His off-field issues aside and from a sheer football point of view, it was probably a risk Richmond had to take.”
The Tigers fell from a finals contender and fringe top-four side down to 13th in 2016, which is partly why King says the move can be justified.
“If you sit on your hands and don’t take any risks at all, you’re almost certainly stagnating, if not going backwards,” King said.
“When you look at most clubs, even the premiers, over the last few years, they’ve taken some sort of risk, whether it be with a high pick for an elite level talent at a big price or a speculative opportunity, such as a Mitch Clark-style trade or the investment in a Patrick Dangerfield or Harley Bennell or Colin Sylvia in the past.
“Hindsight will tell you Yarran is a bust, but there isn’t a coach in the land who doesn’t think they can impact a disgruntled or underperforming talent at another club. They think they can get them into their premises, get them back on track and get some benefit out of it, which we all understand.
“Yep it hasn’t worked at Richmond, put a line through it, but history is littered with players that have failed with second opportunities. In the modern era, under guys like Alastair Clarkson and John Longmire, they’ve all shown that’s the model, that’s what you have to do.”
That’s an attitude backed by new Tigers general manager of football Neil Balme, who defended the club against those criticising Yarran’s recruitment based on the result rather than the process itself.
“It’s very easy to just sit back and say they shouldn’t have done it,” Balme said on SEN.
“Do you think then that Sydney shouldn’t have taken a risk on Lance Franklin? He’s had some issues with mental health … was it a good idea to do that or not? Clearly it was. But if he was ill you’d say no, that was a bad decision.
“You can’t just say that it’s a bad decision because it didn’t work out.
“Is it worth helping these young men and taking a risk to help them play the game they want to play? Surely it is.
“Sometimes they don’t work out, we shouldn’t just go back over it and say that was a bad decision so therefore you shouldn’t have ever done it.”
With Yarran returning home to Western Australia, Balme said the Tigers would support him if he wanted to rejoin his junior WAFL club Swan Districts.
“Certainly if he wanted to play for Swan Districts we would support that entirely and we wouldn’t make it difficult for him at all,” Balme said.
“If he is playing footy for Swans, we’re barracking for him.”
Former Melbourne forward David Schwarz was one of those critical of the Yarran move on Wednesday, declaring it “a big bust” and suggesting that the former Blue found things difficult after Eddie Betts left Carlton at the end of 2013.
“They were good mates and I know Eddie was a mentor for him,” Schwarz told SEN.
“He just didn’t have that support mechanism, he didn’t have that buddy there that could help him through the tough times.
“Richmond, unfortunately were probably warned about Chris Yarran but they thought better. They thought they could turn him around.
“They knew he was a wonderful talent but he had a lot of stuff going on and unfortunately for the Tigers, probably not enough research in the end into just how troubled and how many things he had going on in his life.
“Richmond, they cop another one. A lack of due diligence that has probably cost them in the long run.
“Not being able to get Chris Yarran to the field at all in a couple of years of trying … that’s a real kick in the guts.
“It’s a big bust. You talk about trades, you talk about giving up to get something. We’ve seen a lot of bad trades over the last decade but that will go down as one of the really bad ones.”
Former AFL star Wayne Schwass told SEN he had advocated for more support for players’ mental health.
“We’ve got great medical teams and we’ve got big medical teams, some of the best in the world, (with) two or three doctors, six physios (and) eight masseurs, but we might have (only) one part-time or fulltime psychiatrist,” Schwass said.
“We need to reinvest some money into the welfare and the emotional intelligence of our playing group so that we can assist players dealing with injuries of the mind and not just injuries in a physical sense.
“These are young men thrust into a big environment, they’re forced to grow up really quickly and it’s not just about their physical preparation and performance and recovery.”
http://www.stuff-richmond-had-to-take-says-david-king-as-speedster-quits-to-deal-with-mental-health/news-story/b248fe8f96683281c7c0d53c526d5dd4
