Lade played alongside Chaplin at the Power for six seasons, including the 2007 Grand Final loss to Geelong, and highly rates the experienced key defender, who recently joined the Tigers via the AFL’s inaugural free agency period.
“He’s a great bloke and he’ll add to our defence and our club, overall,” Lade said on this week’s “Tiger Trade Central” panel show.
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“He’s a very good leader and, once he knows what we’re trying to do, defensively and offensively, as a backman, he’ll basically take charge of our defence and really guide it to what we’re trying to do.
“So, that adds a lot to helping Alex Rance, Ben Griffiths and Dylan Grimes down there.
“We’re really excited about him coming . . . he’s going to be a big acquisition for us.”
Lade caught up with Chaplin over lunch yesterday, while the 26-year-old veteran of 140 league games, was in Melbourne looking at a place for his family to move into.
“He’s got another couple of weeks in Adelaide, and then he’ll move all his stuff over. We’re looking forward to getting him here,” Lade said.
Meanwhile, Lade also is impressed with Richmond’s other free agency acquisition, ex-Crow, Chris Knights.
“’Knighter’ will add to our half-forward and midfield mix. He’s a very penetrating kick, can find the ball, and kick goals,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to him getting a good run at it.
“In Adelaide, he played just a couple of games this year, so he didn’t get the best run. But we think if we can give him an opportunity that he’ll develop again and, hopefully, go back to having a year like he did in 2009 (where he kicked 43 goals).”
