Blair Hartley clearly has a keen eye for left-foot talent . . .

Over the past couple of years, Hartley, in his role as Richmond’s Opposition and List Analyst, has recruited four of them from rival league clubs to Tigerland.

At the end of 2010, he secured the services of left-foot pair, Shaun Grigg (Carlton), via the AFL’s trade period, and Bachar Houli (Essendon), via the pre-season draft.
Two years later, in the first week of the league’s inaugural free agency period, Hartley added SA left-foot duo, Chris Knights (Adelaide Crows) and Troy Chaplin (Port Adelaide) to the mix at Punt Road.

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Richmond is now starting to rival Hawthorn in the left-foot stakes, with former captain Chris Newman, along with young players Jake Batchelor, Matt Dea and Brett O’Hanlon, also being left-footers.

And, Hartley is following in the footsteps of the Tiger talent scouts of old, with his left-foot leanings.

A check of the list of top 20 Tiger trade pick-ups of the past 50 years, currently being counted down at richmondfc.com.au, reveals more than half of them were/are left-footers - Paul Broderick, Nathan Brown, Greg Dear, Shaun Grigg, Ben Harrison, Graeme Landy, Robbie McGhie, Ricky McLean, Barry Rowlings, Troy Simmonds and Ian Stewart were natural left-footers, while Leon Cameron was just as proficient on his left, even though he was technically regarded as a right-footer.