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Depth of Richmond list excites coach Damien HardwickJON RALPH
Herald Sun
November 26, 2015 DAMIEN Hardwick has assured impatient fans Richmond has the list to compete next year after rounding out its off-season haul on Tuesday.
The Tigers have lost three consecutive elimination finals and did not land the big fish they were after during trade period despite repeated efforts.
But Richmond’s level of comfort with its list build was indicated by the selection of small forward Daniel Rioli, who could take several years to flourish.
Hardwick told the Herald Sun the Tigers had made massive list gains in the past two years despite some external perceptions.
“We are really excited about what we have brought in. We have got great depth of players that can take us where we need to go. We are just putting some cream on the top at the moment,” he said.
“The big thing with our list strategy is we had a really good draft last year.
“So those players will come on this year. Corey Ellis didn’t play a lot, Connor Menadue, Nathan Drummond will come through.
“Then we added Chris Yarran as a ready-made player and Andrew Moore and Jacob Townsend. We are pretty happy with our build over 24 months.”
Hardwick said his contract situation was no distraction despite club legend Kevin Bartlett urging Richmond to re-sign him past the 2015 season.
“I was in Bali. I saw a couple of things (on the internet) but that sort of thing is taken care of in due course. We have just got to concentrate on winning footy games.”
He is aware fans are frustrated by the lack of finals wins — he is yet to salute in September as a coach — but said they should put the most recent loss into perspective.
“We were disappointed with the result last year, it was unexpected, but we played a really good footy club in North Melbourne who went on and beat Sydney up in Sydney,’’ he said.
“They were a real form team of the competition. But we are looking to improve again and I have got no doubt we will with the talent we have pulled in and a couple of bits of game style we are working on over the summer.”
Richmond secured 22-year-old WAFL defender Nathan Broad with pick 67, and Hardwick has declared every defensive position open for Round 1.
David Astbury’s trade to Brisbane was aborted late, Todd Elton is pushing hard, and Broad could be in contention for an early debut.
“Nathan is 22 and he was outstanding for his WAFL club. He offers an element of speed and could play on a wing. He is similar to Jake Batchelor or Dylan Grimes — he can play tall or small.
“He is a player who if he gets a good chunk of the pre-season under his belt he can play early
“We are really pleased (Astbury) stayed. We had a really solid back six last year and didn’t have one injury.
“He realises how important he is to the future and we expect him to have a really good season. Those positions are up for grabs.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-draft-2015-depth-of-richmond-list-excites-coach-damien-hardwick/news-story/e9534333884e997d5cc11cdbab0aad7c
