No. 3: The Tigers are forming a formidable ‘Foreign Legion’
A key factor in Richmond’s sustained success throughout the 1970s was the Club’s recruiting methodology.
The Tigers pinpointed certain players from rival clubs, who they believed could adequately fill holes in their line-up, and set about enticing them to Punt Road.
Champion centreman Ian Stewart left St Kilda for Richmond in a sensational swap involving dual Tiger premiership player Bill Barrot.
That opened the inter-club trade floodgates for the Tigers . . .
Over the course of the next few years, Richmond lured the likes of Paul Sproule, Robbie McGhie, Ricky McLean, Stephen Rae, David Thorpe, Gareth Andrews and Wayne Walsh from other clubs to significantly bolster its stocks.
Sproule, McGhie and Walsh played in the Tigers’ back-to-back premiership teams of 1973-74, Rae, Thorpe and Andrews also enjoyed the game’s ultimate glory with the Club, while McLean, who was a member of the 1972 Grand Final side that lost to Carlton.
Four decades on, Richmond is again starting to reap the rewards of selective mature-age recruiting.
Tell us which member of the Tiger Foreign Legion you believe will poll the most votes in this year’s Brownlow Medal
Three of the top 10 place-getters in this year’s Jack Dyer Medal, came from rival league clubs - Ivan Maric (third, Adelaide Crows), Shaun Grigg (fifth, Carlton) and Bachar Houli (equal 10th, Essendon), with 23-year-old Steven Morris, from West Adelaide (seventh in the B & F), rounding out some highly impressive work from the Club’s astute List Manager Blair Hartley.
Mature-age rookie Brad Miller also provided solid value up forward for the Tigers over a couple of years, after being discarded by Melbourne, before announcing his retirement from league football late in the 2012 season.
For quite some time, Richmond has been meticulously preparing for the advent of free agency at the end of this season.
Expect the Tigers to snare a couple of free agents first-up, and to maximise the opportunities provided by this recruiting system over the next few years, as they strive to deepen the reservoir of playing talent at their disposal.
The Club, with its excellent new facilities, soon-to-be finished reconfiguration of the Punt Road Oval playing surface, ideal location in the heart of Melbourne’s famous sporting precinct, and nucleus of young guns, is well placed to attract more recruits to sign up to its Foreign Legion.
Tomorrow, it’s all about finding closure.
