RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers' 21-year-old emerging star Dustin Martin needs to find something productive outside of football to keep him occupied, and the club is working with him to make that happen.
Hardwick said Martin was very good in sticking to the structure a football season provided but struggled to maintain discipline during the off-season.
"The off-season is the area where we have got to help him with, and he needs to find something outside of footy to keep him interested," Hardwick told SEN radio on Friday.
Hardwick emphasised that Martin was a good person with a solid long-term future at the Tigers, but the club was working with him to ensure he did not have a lot of time on his hands when football stopped.
Martin moved out of club president Gary March's home last year, and Hardwick said moving back was not the answer.
"The reality of the situation is that he has got to learn to manage himself and he has done that reasonably well, moved out midway through last year and bought himself a nice house, and he's got to learn life skills like a number of our younger players," Hardwick said.
Hardwick was only half-joking when he said recruit Aaron Edwards nearly had the shortest career at the Tigers in its history after the 28-year-old was fined by police for being intoxicated in a public place a day after being traded to the club from North Melbourne.
Hardwick said Edwards was embarrassed and the team's leadership group would address the matter at some point.
"We all make mistakes as we know and he'll learn a pretty harsh lesson," Hardwick said.
"It's something we're trying to crack out not only of Richmond but footy clubs in general. You have got a great responsibility to be a role model within this game and it's not something we like to see our players do, or any player in the AFL for that matter."
The Tigers will enter the season with a series of new recruits to add depth to an improving team, and the coach thinks the club can have an outstanding back six if all its candidates are fit at the one time.
"We think it forms the basis of a very good side going forward," Hardwick said.
