Cut Tigers – Terry tells
4:34:52 PM Thu 21 October, 2004
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au
Richmond coach Terry Wallace has outlined the reasons behind the latest player departures at the Club.
Tim Fleming, 26, and Luke Weller, 22, have been advised by the Tigers that their contracts would not be renewed, as part of the revising of the playing list for 2005.
“I’ve seen a lot of emails around the place over the last 12 months wondering why the kids aren’t getting an opportunity at Richmond. Well, we’ve made decisions recently to open up opportunities for our younger players to be able to be developed,” Wallace said.
“Tim Fleming’s an example of that. At his age, he probably wasn’t going to be a part of what will be a successful Tiger era, and we need to give that chance to get 50 games into young players like Hartigan, Jackson, Raines and Roach.
“It’s important to fast-track their development while we’ve still got our quality senior players around the Club.”
Weller’s delisting was tied in with Richmond’s trade exchange with Geelong for Brad Ottens.
“Luke got squeezed because of the fact that when we made our initial cuts, we then had to wait for the trade period to go through,” Wallace said.
“What happened was that we got an extra draft selection for Brad Ottens, so we had a one player out, two players in scenario.
“Also, what we identified at the end of the trade period, was that we probably needed to go out and look for a couple of bigger, senior-bodied players, to be able to assist our younger group coming through next year.
“The names that come in as late picks in the draft will be chosen for specific purposes. I’ve been across every game played for the last two years and I’ve been identifying blokes that I think can actually give us some sort of assistance in the short term.
“They will probably be delistings from other clubs, but I see a specific role for them within our structure. Whereas, when you looked at a Weller and a Fleming, I probably saw them holding back the progress of the younger players within our group of similar size and playing style.”
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