City dining, almond scrolls and a boardroom meeting with club heavyweights – Richmond’s legwork to lure a trio of AFLW stars was not only successful, it was also deeply strategised.
Head AFLW coach Tom Hunter has detailed in the second episode of The Originals podcast how he learnt that Katie Brennan, who defected from the Western Bulldogs as captain, was a potential recruit.
Hunter had not even contemplated that possibility before Richmond football operations manager Kate Sheahan gave him a confidential heads-up.
The Originals: Episode 2 - Building a new breed of Tiger
Written and presented by award-winning journalist and author, Sam Lane; subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
One meeting led to another.
The first, Hunter explains, was focused on Brennan’s football and the Tigers’ plans before joining AFLW in 2020.
Aiming to appeal to Brennan’s business interests, Richmond later had its commercial operations and marketing boss, Simon Derrick, present to the prospective big name recruit.
That happened over dinner – Melbourne dining hot spot Kisumé to be exact.
Imagining it would be another angle that appealed to Brennan, the Tigers also brought pioneering club president Peggy O’Neal to that table.
“I think we left it pretty confident,” Hunter reflects of the meeting he describes in The Originals.
“It was almost like the final cherry on top.”
The Tigers met with another of the AFLW’s most high profile and high performing players, inaugural Brisbane Lion Sabrina Frederick, over a breakfast spread at Sheahan’s home.
Richmond’s full-time AFLW welfare manager, Sarah Wylie, was asked to that. The intended message?
“To show that she’d be really well supported off field,” Hunter says.
“I think most people forget about Sabrina that she’s only 22.”
Hunter also tables that Frederick was his number one recruitment target. All-Australian Bulldog and elite basketballer Monique Conti was third on his wish list. A cohort including Richmond CEO Brendon Gale, full-time head of AFLW high performance, Matt Parker, and Neil Balme eventually presented to Conti in the boardroom at Richmond’s Punt Road headquarters.
“We presented how we saw her in the Richmond colours and the team make up,” Hunter recalls.
“Matt Parker spoke a lot about how we can help her be the best athlete … and that if she’s going to miss something through her basketball commitments that she can come in during the day and either watch vision or do an extra session with ‘Parks’.
“I think that really appealed to Mon.”
Hear more inside stories in The Originals podcast.
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