Richmond footy boss Neil Balme said today Richmond is prepared to help fringe players move to new clubs during the exchange period, and says they will always be Tigers.
And Balme says the Tigers are bullish about the next generation of young players who will push for selection as early as Round 1 next season.
Last year Richmond lost Reece Conca as a free agent and traded Sam Lloyd, Anthony Miles, Corey Ellis and Tyson Stengle for late draft picks.
“You can’t emotionally blackmail people into staying for the wrong reasons. If they need to go, you need to help them go,” Balme said on Trade Radio.
“Sam Lloyd’s the perfect example of that. We loved Sam and we think he’s a very good player (but) he wasn’t getting enough games with us for different reasons, so we encouraged him to find somewhere to play, and we love the fact that he plays well for the Bulldogs because he’s one of our guys.
“We do have a saying once you’re a Richmond man, you’re always a Richmond man.
“When we flew up to Brisbane (in the first week of finals) the Bulldogs were flying to Sydney and they left at the same time, and to see Sam in the airport lounge with our guys, it was like he was still playing for us, it was fantastic that they care about him and they want him to do well.
“That’s the sort of thing that we need to buy into. You can’t just be a soft touch and let all your players go for nothing, but you’ve got to encourage them if they’re not getting the opportunity.
“Brandon’s the perfect example of that.
“We want him to stay, he wants to stay, he loves being here. The system is set up so other clubs might be able to find players with better circumstances, like he’s got.
“So I think they have offered him something pretty significant so he’s got to consider that because in his life there’s more important things than just playing for the Tigers, he needs to set himself up and we will only support that.
“It’s not that we want him to go and not that we’re pushing him out, but if that opportunity comes and he wants to do it, we’ll maturely look at that and say what’s the best thing for him, and what’s the best thing for us in the end.”
After the blockbuster arrival of Tom Lynch last year, the Tigers are unlikely to be big players in this trade period.
“You can always do with more players but particularly given the Tom Lynch incoming last year there’s not a lot of spare dough to spend, so we won’t be doing too much,” Balme said.
“We think we’ve got six or eight kids who are not playing very often in the senior team who we think will ... if they have big pre-seasons we’re going to have some genuine problems at selection, which we’re really pleased about.”
Balme listed Grand Final hardluck story Jack Ross, first-round draft pick Riley Collier-Dawkins, Mabior Chol and highly-touted big man Callum Coleman-Jones as Richmond’s next wave.
“I think the fact that both Sydney Stack and Marlion Pickett came in and were able to play pretty significant AFL footy on the back of not all that much of a background gives us a confidence that if we train them well and we coach them well, then they are going to be a good opportunity to play good footy at the next level.”
Source: Herald-Sun
