Deledio and Newman re-sign
4:02:39 PM Tue 11 April, 2006
Scott Spits
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond has received a boost after announcing the re-signings of star youngster Brett Deledio and reliable utility Chris Newman.
The Tigers have secured Deledio - the winner of last year's NAB AFL Rising Star Award - on a three-year deal while 23-year-old Newman has re-signed for another two seasons.
Deledio, 18, the No.1 selection at the 2004 NAB AFL Draft, played all 22 matches in his debut season with the Tigers and represented Australian in the International Rules series against Ireland last October.
Newman has played 76 matches for Richmond since making his debut in 2002.
Richmond football director Greg Miller said re-signing the pair was important part of the plan to continue to develop the younger players on the club's list.
"You all know the club's taken a pretty clear direction, a pretty clear pathway of junior development over the last few seasons," Miller said.
"We have 30 players on our list who are 24 or under. I really think that these two boys represent the future leaders on that group."
Miller said it was a mutual decision between the club and Deledio's management to re-sign the emerging star until the end of 2009.
"Obviously there's a changing environment at the moment with the new negotiations on the TPP (total player payments)," he said.
"We took that into consideration and we've got contingency plans for both boys if there's an extraordinary change.
"We had to work through that issue over the last month but when Brett finishes this contract he'll be 21 years of age so they'll be a few more for him in store after that."
Deledio said he looked forward to being a part of Richmond's future and he had no concerns about re-signing for three years.
"I see myself as playing for Richmond for now. I'm not in any rush to go anywhere so to have a three-year deal is fine for me," Deledio said.
Newman was equally happy to ensure a future at Tigerland.
"We've got a young group and we're all very excited about what we can do," Newman said.
"We've all got a pretty clear direction and a pretty clear goal that we want to achieve - that's to eventually play finals and be in a successful team."
http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=256868