THE TRADE PERIODWith their finals hopes essentially shot, the Tigers now face a series of crucial list management decisions.
Those calls, according to triple All-Australian Nick Dal Santo, will essentially determine the club’s short and long-term destiny.
“I think we’ll get a clearer picture on where they think they’re at – or we definitely will have a clearer picture – on decisions they make in the next fortnight and when their season’s over and then ultimately through the trade period,” Dal Santo told Fox Footy’s First Crack.
“If they think that they’re going again, all those senior players that we’ve touched on that you might be thinking are 50-50, like a Bachar (Houli), you’re keeping them, because clearly they’re going to make your team better for the next 12 months.
“Are they in the best interest for the long term? Probably not, because you miss out on that development with the young group.”
Prior to Round 22, the Tigers held the following selections at this year’s national draft: 9, 16, 27, 28, 42, 46. The last time the club had such a juicy draft hand like that was in 2004 when they took Brett Deledio, Richard Tambling, Danny Meyer, Adam Pattison and Dean Polo with their five top-20 picks.
Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph reported on Fox Footy on Friday night the Tigers were more likely to “go to the draft” with that “amazing arsenal” of picks this year, instead of trading aggressively to acquire gun players from rival clubs. This is backed up by senior foxfooty.com.au writer Tom Morris’ report earlier this week, which indicated the Tigers were no longer in the hunt for Fremantle midfielder Adam Cerra.
But if the Tigers are to bring in an array of younger players at this year’s draft, they can’t offer several players new contracts.
The big talking point on Friday night was veteran defender Bachar Houli, who’s “100 per cent sure” he wants to play on next year but coach Damien Hardwick remained tight-lipped about the triple premiership player’s contract situation post-game.
Fellow defender David Astbury, as well as Kamdyn McIntosh, are also unrestricted free agents at season’s end – McIntosh is reportedly closing in on a new Tigers deal – while Mabior Chol and Daniel Rioli are both out of contract at the end of this year. Chol has reportedly been attracting interest from rival clubs.
Dixon said the Tigers had some hard decisions to make.
“You’ve got to move some of those guys on, because if you don’t move them on and you buy another year, you (cost) yourself another year of development, which is not where you want to be,” he said.
“So I think you can clean some out. They sharpen themselves up and they come back to where they know.”
Riewoldt added: “With your senior players, you’ve got to drip them out of the club. You don’t want them all leaving at the same time.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-news-2021-richmond-trade-news-draft-picks-bachar-houli-contract-damien-hardwick-press-conference/news-story/6c53f19924309b59e8f8a12dc9b8c945
