VIDEO: GM of Footy Craig Cameron joins the Tiger Trade Central desk to talk about Week 2 of player movement
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/roarvisionarchive/tabid/11454/contentid/497034/default.aspxSummary* Blair Hartley had already spoken to all the clubs prior to last Monday's all-club meetings.
* Spoke to Chris Knights two years ago about a trade but it didn't eventuate. So we've had our eye on him for a while. We wanted a bigger body and someone who could play forward and go into the midfield. That's important with the 3-&-1 sub bench and especially so if the AFL move to a 2-&-2 sub bench.
* Chaplin adds experience to our young defence. Having three key backs will be very important if the 2 subs comes in as you then won't be able to rotate your key backs as often as now. It will become more a game on, game off rotation with the 3 key defenders.
* With GWS/GC, it meant we had to rebuild during the compromised drafts period, so we just couldn't just rely on going down the youth path. We needed to look at other recruiting avenues as well. That's too hard for your recruiter alone to look at both the U18 kids and possible trades/free agents. So that's why we've resourced that area well and brought in Blair Hartley.
* Philosophy is if we haven't rated an opposition player as someone we'd been keen to bring to Richmond prior to the trade period then we won't go after him if his name suddenly pops up during the trade period. Now that's not a lock in rule as someone might pop up that could suit us but in general if we haven't planned for it then we stay away.
* We've looked at the Sydney model of bringing mature players in. It's worked because they have properly resourced that area to build their list. Unashamedly we have copied some of their systems.
* It's not just about bringing in mature players; you need to draft good kids as well. We've got a good system between Blair Hartley and Francis Jackson where we rate the U18 kids and mature players at opposition clubs in exactly the same manner. So we can compare a player we may get via a trade with that of a kid we may draft with a certain pick. We've got a great synergy between those two areas.
* At this time of year the footy dept. splits into two groups. We like to kick the coaches out of the Club to refresh. We hope to play deep into September next year so being around the Club from November to September is a long time for our coaches especially with the roller-coaster nature of footy. On the other hand, the list managers and recruiters are and will be working non-stop through until mid-December when all the trading and drafting finishes.
* Some of the boys have been coming into the club and training on their own back (the Club hasn't made them come in). Cameron mentioned Rance, Ivan, Knights has been getting checked out, Nahas has been coming in every day; Dusty has been doing a few runs around the Tan. Some guys have remote gym access as they like to get away from the club before getting stuck into a long season.
