Wallace tight lipped on Pre-season Draft
1:13 PM Fri 30 November, 2007
By Jason Phelan
richmondfc.com.au
THE NAB AFL Pre-season Draft is less than two weeks away, but Richmond coach Terry Wallace continued to play his cards close to his chest on Friday and gave little away when asked about his intentions for the No.1 pick.
“We’ve got about 15 players down training with us at the moment that we’re keeping a close eye on to see where things go,” Wallace said.
The coach was speaking from Craigieburn on Friday where the Tigers announced plans to build a new pre-season training facility.
“We’ll pick up the best kid if we think the best kid’s right and if we think there’s a senior player that will add to our mix then we’ll certainly go down that pathway. Those decisions will be made in the next week or so,” he said.
The Tigers have an intriguing mix of players with AFL experience and talented youngsters in their train-on group.
It includes ex-Collingwood ruckman David Fanning, former Fremantle small forward Clayton Collard, Bulldogs’ SANFL premiership midfielder Ian Callinan and athletic Subiaco tall forward David Gourdis - who many consider unlucky not to be picked up in the recent NAB AFL Draft.
Wallace is more than happy to take the wait and see approach which he said allowed the club greater flexibility leading up to what he called a “great opportunity” to add further quality to his playing list.
“We’ve gone both ways in recent times and people sort of say ‘well we haven’t locked away anything’ … but sometimes you get what you get through the trade period and you get it because of the fact that you’re in a [good] negotiating position,” he said.
“I think it’s probably fair to say that Mitch Morton [traded by West Coast for pick 35] was probably nearly our pre-season pick, [but] he ended up coming to us because the West Coast Eagles handed him across, so they didn’t lose him for nothing.”
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