Blumfield heads Tiger purge
11:39:34 AM Wed 1 September, 2004
Paul Gough
Sportal
The massive turnover at Richmond has moved from the administration to the playing list with six players told on Wednesday they are no longer required at the club.
The players are
Billy Nicholls, Adam Houlihan, Ben Marsh, Justin Blumfield, Marc Dragicevic and Simon Fletcher.
This follows on from the retirements earlier this season of Duncan Kellaway and Matthew Rogers meaning the Tigers already have eight vacancies on their list for next season.
But the Tigers denied reports that David Rodan, Greg Stafford and Rory Hilton had also been given their marching orders saying reports to that effect were "damaging for those individuals."
With the exception of Dragicevic, the players delisted by the Tigers were all recruited from rival AFL clubs, with Blumfield - a star at Essendon during the club's all conquering 2000 premeirship campaign - clearly the biggest name.
He came to Richmond at the start of 2003, a victim of Essendon's salary cap problems but has been plagued by injury throughout his time at the club.
The man who was second best afield for the Bombers in the 2000 grand final behind James Hird never recovered from virtually tearing his thigh off the bone in the Tigers' Easter Monday clash against St Kilda just four games into his new career.
He still managed 11 games for the season but this year could play just eight after knee and shoulder problems sidelined him for the first half of 2004.
Blumfield has played 148 games since debuting in bizarre circumstances in the re-start of the infamous Essendon-St Kilda "blackout" game of 1996 at Waverley Park but at just 26 - he turns 27 in late November - his career could now be over.
Marsh, a 1998 premiership ruckman from Adelaide, was picked up by the Tigers in last year's pre-season draft but has been delisted after just one season as has Simon Fletcher, a former wingman with Carlton who was taken at pick 79 in last year's national draft.
Dragicevic has had to battle back from two knee re-constructions but was given a second chance by the Tigers this season after being named on the rookie list after being de-listed last year.
But due to his age, he will be 24 next season, he would no longer qualify for the rookie list next season and the Tigers would have been forced to put him on the senior list which they were unwilling to do.
Nicholls joined from Hawthorn in 2003 but has rarely featured in the senior line-up while Houlihan has also struggled to command a regular senior place since joining from Geelong in 2002.
The de-listing of the six players continues the purge at Punt Road since the end of the 2004 season in which the club lost its last 14 matches - its worst ever losing run in a single season - to finish on the bottom of the ladder for the first time since 1989.
Senior coach for the past five years Danny Frawley has already left the club as has former football manager Greg Hutchison and Frawley's former coaching assistants in Wayne Brittain, Darren Crocker and Paul Spargo as new coach Terry Wallace begins the task of not only purging the senior playing list but also hiring a new coaching staff.
http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=168921======================
I think Rory Hilton is one lucky fella