Win-win: Roo-turned-Tiger Tarrant ideal for contending RichmondMichael Gleeson
The Age
December 19, 2021 Next year, barring injury, Robbie Tarrant will play more games at the MCG with Richmond in one season than he did in his first 12 years with North Melbourne.
Tarrant reckons he played 11, maybe 12, games at the ’G across his North career. The Tigers have 14 games at the MCG next year. That’s before finals.
On one hand, it’s a sort of quirky bit of trivia that means nothing, and on the other hand, it means everything. It is emblematic of his shift from off Broadway to on. It’s a physical move across town to a club that hopes and expects to play finals and contend for a flag next year, having left a club that hopes and expects they are on the path to doing the same thing, just in a much longer time frame.
Tarrant never really planned or expected to move clubs, but his shift from North Melbourne to Richmond was the sort of rare football-list management serendipity that made it an obvious decision. One club that was not contending could benefit from easing some salary cap space, and one club that is contending keeps its window for success open. Win, win.
Robbie Tarrant gets used to the Punt Road surrounds. CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES“I didn’t think I’d be changing clubs to be honest. Even finishing last season, I had every intention of signing on and never had any intention of going to another club,” Tarrant said.
“I didn’t have a deal [to re-sign at North] until post-season and as North were coming with that, Richmond made an approach. I think it worked out for both.”
Tarrant didn’t have players explicitly in mind when contemplating how a shift for a player of his experience and position could work, but there is an obvious parallel with a player like James Frawley in his shift from Melbourne to Hawthorn. At the time, he went as a free agent and a bit younger than Tarrant, but he went to Hawthorn to replace a retiring premiership full-back and fit into a role and play. And win a premiership.
Frawley helped keep the Hawks in contention. Tarrant could be Richmond’s version, and that was the Tigers’ plan in getting him.
Richmond had known from early in the year that David Astbury was probably going to retire so made approaches to Tarrant’s manager, as they had many times during his career. List manager Blair Hartley is an avowed fan.
The Tigers wanted to adopt that Frawley model and not see their period of contention close with Astbury’s retirement, Noah Balta coming off long-term injury and their kids unlikely to be ready to have an immediate impact.
The fact the Tigers had five early picks in the draft, and indeed could secure star young key defender Josh Gibcus with their first pick this year, made the idea of blending a veteran and kids that much easier. (As an aside, Gibcus came second in the club’s 4x1-kilometre time trials of first-to-fourth-year players last week. He is 196 centimetres. He beat the midfielders.)
The sell to convince Tarrant was simple – come and play the same role you have at North, and hopefully, we win a flag together.
“I would love to get back to playing finals footy again, that was certainly a discussion with Richmond,” Tarrant said. “I was fully committed to going down that rebuild path with North as well but [it suited both clubs].
“You do look at players who move and get a flag. I didn’t specifically look at them [Frawley or Brian Lake] but players do move and win flags ... every situation is different. If I can come across and help the team have success, that would be an amazing result.”
Toby Nankervis and Robbie Tarrant run laps. CREDIT: GETTY IMAGESTarrant has been training for three weeks already. He might be 32 and forgiven for wanting to ease into another preseason with the older players but as the new player to the club, he arrived on day one and has impressed with his easy transition. He is working with Tom Lynch who has also returned to training early.
Tarrant didn’t play in his first two seasons after being drafted in 2007. He made his debut in 2010 but those early years were interrupted by injury and he struggled for games. Since then he got his body right and has been reliable across 174 games.
He might break his MCG record, win that flag and prove to be not so much the new James Frawley as the new Robbie Tarrant.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/win-win-roo-turned-tiger-tarrant-ideal-for-contending-richmond-20211217-p59ifb.html
