by Terry Wallace
I believe good AFL clubs are open in their decision-making process with their loyal supporters, which is why I want to take this opportunity on our website to explain the Andy Kellaway situation to the Tiger faithful . . .
Firstly, let me state that I fully realise there are a number of Richmond fans who disagree with the decision we’ve made in not offering Andy a new contract and suggesting he retire. I can assure you it’s never easy telling a player and person of Andy’s calibre that you feel their time is up.
When I took over as Richmond’s coach two years ago, I was charged with the responsibility of turning around the direction of the team, which had suffered 14 losses in-a-row and was roundly criticised for being too slow, too old, and sorely lacking in the skill department.
The responsibility that goes with the territory means difficult decisions occasionally have to be made in order to make progress. And, the AFL rules also force your hand on some of these tough decisions because each year there have to be changes made to your list.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve made a lot of changes to our list, cutting most of the players we felt couldn’t take us to the next level and bringing an exciting group of youngsters into the mix.
With the new breed coming through, plus a collection of good, older players, we think we’re starting to assemble a playing list capable of achieving some long-awaited sustained success at Tigerland. But the league’s rules state that you still have to turn over your list each year, and that’s certainly a much harder task for us at the end of the ’06 season than it has been at any other time since I became coach.
You have to decide whether to make the hard call on senior players – or on kids, who may have been in the system for only a couple of years and are yet to properly mature. The fact is that you could be throwing away your future by letting these youngsters go before they have been given sufficient opportunity to prove themselves.
At the end of 2004, we were faced with such a decision, having to choose between an older player, Tim Fleming, and a younger one, Shane Tuck. We went with ‘Tucky’ and have been very happy with that decision. As a coach, my preference is to back the kids in, because I am convinced that’s the best way to rebuild. I believe if you’re not making those sort of decisions, you’re not truly developing your list.
In Andy Kellaway’s case, we saw him as competing for a senior spot next year against young players such as Brett Deledio, Andrew Raines, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Matty White and Dean Polo, along with more seasoned campaigners in the Bowden brothers and Chris Newman. When you also have the likes of the taller Will Thursfield (returning from his knee reconstruction) and Darren Gaspar to add to our defence, you can see that we have quite a few options back there and competition for places is going to be strong.
Let me just clarify that it’s not – and never has been – a Kellaway v Gaspar contest. That’s not fair on Darren, who’s been a teammate and good mate of Andy’s over the past decade. Darren, who has been offered a new one-year contract with the Club, is a key-position player in defence, while Andy has played a third man in role at half-back. He hasn’t lined up on the opposition’s tall forwards for several years now.
Yes, I’ve gone on record as saying that we were a better side with Andy in the backline – and no-one could doubt his wonderful bravery and the excellent contribution he has made to the Club throughout his league career. Time, however, stands still for no-one, and with Andy turning 31 at the end of the year, I believe retirement is in his best interests.
I didn’t want such a respected figure as him to spend most of next season playing in the VFL and getting increasingly frustrated with that. Far better, in my opinion, to make the hard call now, rather than letting it fester.
Richmond, of course, is not the only club to make these difficult decisions on stalwarts. Just today, Brisbane announced it was parting company with triple premiership ruckman Clark Keating, and that surely wouldn’t have been an easy decision for the Lions to make.
I also well recall the publicity surrounding Malcolm Blight’s ‘sacking’ of Adelaide champions Chris McDermott, Tony McGuinness and Andrew Jarman, not long after becoming coach of the Crows in the late 1990s. ‘Blighty’ just wanted to get the next generation up and going at Adelaide as quickly as possible – and history shows how successful he was . . .
As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about developing our next group of players, who can help restore this Club to it rightful place, as a force to be reckoned with in the AFL competition.
I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Kellaway family. Andy and his older brother Duncan, have been favorites of the Richmond fans for many years due to their courage and commitment to the cause.
This is purely a football disagreement with Andy. He believes he should play on with the Tigers, and I believe he should retire. There’s certainly nothing personal involved.
I had a beer with Andy on ‘Mad Monday’ this week and told him I’d see him next day at the Club for a chat about his playing future. He is still comfortable being around the Club and there is no animosity at all. It’s simply a matter of differing opinions on where he’s at in his league career.
All I can do is put forward my views and leave it to Andy to decide which way he goes – whether he retires, or plays on at another AFL club.
I had a similar situation at the Bulldogs a few years ago when I thought the time had come for Paul Hudson to hang up his boots. Paul disagreed, left the Dogs and signed a two-year deal with Richmond. To this day, I still believe I was right in my call on Paul’s league future and, even though we disagreed on that, we have always maintained a good relationship.
Given that Andy has indicated he wants his manager to sound out other league clubs so he can continue to play at the game’s highest level, I don’t want to go into the specific football reasons why I believe his time as a player at Tigerland is up. To me, that would be totally disrespectful to him.
I would have loved for Andy to have agreed to play a farewell game, which was offered to him last Saturday, but he declined.
All I hope now is that Andy makes the right decision on his future. I wish him luck and thank him for everything he’s done for the Richmond Football Club.
http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=296015
