Player retention is a vastly under-rated component of list management at league clubs, according to Richmond’s General Manager of Football Dan Richardson.

It is something Richmond does particularly well, too, being ranked in the top three in the competition for retaining its playing talent.

“We all get a bit carried away with free agency and the trade period, but the truth is, keeping your best players is more important than that.  And we’ve been able to do that this year,” Richardson said on ‘Talking Tigers’.

“Let’s face it, we even had a situation during trade period where a player in Dave Astbury was looking at his options . . . but he chose to stay at Tigerland because he loves it here. 

Talking Tigers post-trade special edition

“So, our players want to stay, they want to be part of what we’re building.

“Our list is still relatively young.  Apart from the two players we’ve brought in over the last week (Chris Yarran and Jacob Townsend), we’ll get further improvement from our relatively young list – second-year players like Corey Ellis and Nathan Drummond, who’s coming back from his knee (injury) and starting to get up and running, and looking really solid, as examples. 

“We’re really confident that there’ll be that improvement, both from the players we’ve brought in, but also intrinsically.”

Richardson also referred to talented young forward Ben Lennon as an example of another Tiger player who attracted some interest from rival league clubs before re-signing with the Club last week.

“That’s the reason why that negotiation was a little bit protracted . . . that happens sometimes. 

“We’ve been really strong on sticking to our payment structure over the last few years, so it was just a matter of taking a bit of time. 

“Ben, we know, loves it here at Richmond, and I don’t think he was ever seriously considering going anywhere else. 

“He’s still got a lot of development left in him . . . he’s only in his second year, third year next year. 

“He was pick 12 two years ago and, projecting forward to this year’s (National) Draft, we’ve held on to pick 12 again.  That’s a terrific result . . .

“We’ll get another player like Ben, like Nick Vlastuin, Brandon Ellis . . . all first round picks over the last few years. 

“So that’s why it was also so important to hold on to pick 12.”