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News Richmond Media Articles - 2024
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panatha1908
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The casual lunch that brought a club favourite’s time at Tigerland to an end
Neil Balme, a key part of Richmond’s return to AFL prominence, talks about the “briefly awkward” discussion that made it clear this would be his last year at the club.
Love to gain access to the article - his contribution to the Richmond Football Club is immeasurable
The casual lunch that brought a club favourite’s time at Tigerland to an end
Neil Balme, a key part of Richmond’s return to AFL prominence, talks about the “briefly awkward” discussion that made it clear this would be his last year at the club.www.theage.com.au
panatha1908
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There is a site some people use that finds articles behind paywalls as archives but can't remember it. Someone will post it I'm sure. But with gale and balme finishing up this year it really is a rebuild entirely. But I trust our people to get the right people in
faark thats sad
love ya balmey
love ya balmey
_RT_
Community Leader
- Sep 17, 2006
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- #58
It was at a casual pre-season lunch hosted by Brendon Gale where Neil Balme, another key player from the Richmond premiership epoch, learned that his time at the club was about to come to an end.
In a conversation Balme described as briefly awkward, always caring but ultimately definitive, the Tigers CEO and his football boss Blair Hartley made it clear that season 2024 would be Balme’s last at the club.
Eavesdropping fellow diners at Richmond’s Rowena Parade Milk Bar would not have realised the significance of the conversation at first. Gale, Hartley and Balme have been part of a passing parade of Tigers’ staff and players at the cafe for years.
Breaking bread and drinking coffee, the Richmond bosses asked Balme about his health and well-being and plans for the future. They talked about how much he deserved a proper holiday. At some point, the penny dropped.
Balme, speaking exclusively to this masthead about the decision, said he had come to terms with his subtly enforced exit but admitted it had not sat comfortably with him for some days afterwards.
“I think they were making the point they want me to retire rather than move me on,” he said, “and in a sense that takes the pressure off all of us. For a day or two I did feel a little bit uncomfortable, but the reality is I’m out of the decision-making area, and it’s kind of like a changing of the guard.
“What they were saying was I’ve done my work at Richmond without any doubt. And while they have enormous respect for my relationship with the Richmond community the reality is I’ve been a bit crook and a bit weird.
“I’m not as strong mentally as I used to be, and I struggle with my emotions sometimes.”
Balme was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2020 after his first in a series of frightening seizures. Still very much a media frontman for the club and a highly effective conduit with sponsors, coterie groups and other heavy hitters, Balme was removed from the football department and its day-to-day processes in 2021 partly due to soft-cap constraints but remained an influential player in the Tigers’ fledgling AFLW program.
Although he was Melbourne coach when the teenaged Adem Yze was recruited to the Demons, Balme was not included in the coaching process to find Damien Hardwick’s replacement. He was not explicitly told, but it became clear over the pre-season he would no longer sit in the coaches’ box on match days.
“I’m not really part of match committee any more,” said Balme, “and they made a conscious decision not to have me involved [with Yze’s appointment] and I accepted that.”
A famously outspoken critic of the AFL and its processes, Balme, whose equally old-school football values have never prevented him having a positive impact on players and football departments, remains acutely self-aware about his diminishing role as a full-time football official in the era of increasing compliance.
“What I have to say doesn’t always suit them,” he observed of both club and head office. While Balme has a relationship with the new coach, “he doesn’t regularly come into my office and ask my advice”.
Gale, too, looks certain to depart Richmond to take over as inaugural chief of the new Tasmanian team, but he will ensure Balme receives a fitting send-off towards the end of 2024.
Whether he chooses to share his effective wisdom on a part-time basis with another club, work on another biography or share his stories as an after-dinner speaker, Balme will remain one of the game’s most fascinating and ultimately heroic characters.
After two premierships as a Richmond player and a successful coaching career at Norwood in the SANFL, Balme came close at Melbourne. He came close, too, on several occasions at the helm of Collingwood’s football operation. Sacked the first time, he moved to Geelong where the under-performing Cats won their first of three flags under his football stewardship.
Sacked the second time by the Magpies in late 2016 he moved to Richmond. If he could single out one key success over the past seven-and-a-half years it remains the drought-breaking 2017 premiership.
That came off the back of a 2016 review where Gale restructured the football department and placed Balme in charge and Peggy O’Neal fought significant political unrest. The only thing O’Neal’s board and the two separate groups of challengers agreed upon was that the club needed to bring back Neil Balme.
With so many key players going and gone from the Tigers’ premiership era, Balme still insists he holds no fears for the club which before 2017 had endured 37 years without a flag and for many of those years existed in a relative cultural wasteland.
“No I don’t,” he said. “I know people say this, but culturally they’ve never been in a better spot. Adem [Yze] and Tim [Livingstone] and Blair [Hartley] reflect the values and behaviours that they and others before them had put into place.
“It can always fall apart if you put the wrong people in of course, but I don’t see any danger of that happening here. There will be challenges on-field as we re-build but the attitude to training and the general feeling about the place is terrific.”
As he enters his 73rd year, Balme remains torn about his football future. He came close to leaving Richmond towards the end of 2021 when Mark Ricciuto led an Adelaide push seeking a football mentor for the relatively inexperienced new coach Matthew Nicks and his football boss Adam Kelly. But Balme’s medical specialist urged him not to make the geographic career change.
He calls Richmond home and sees his return for eight years as a football administrator and later ambassador and influencer at the club as his ultimate legacy. But he still believes he has something to offer.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl...ects-are-so-hard-to-read-20240314-p5fciw.html
“I’m not sure I’ll ever work full-time at a footy club again,” Balme said. “It’s a challenging job working in a footy club. They’re challenging places. But I’d love to keep helping others and in a lot of ways I’m ready for another challenge even if it’s on a consultancy basis.
“If I had to sum it up I can say I’ve come back to the club I called home for eight years, and we’ve had some success and everything comes to an end.
“This is just another part of the changing of the guard. I might have been a bit disappointed for about five minutes but in the end in their position I probably would have done the same thing.”
Football historians and Richmond supporters will look back and debate the final domino, which fell to end the Tigers’ premiership era.
Some will point to 2022, when a grieving Dustin Martin lost his football appetite and the club lost him for the best part of a season. Others to 2023 and the not-so-pleasant May Sunday morning when Hardwick told Gale he, too, had lost the hunger – at least for Richmond. Or in August, when a tearful Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt walked from the MCG for the final time in Tiger jumpers. Premiership president Peggy O’Neal had stepped away in 2022 with Gale set to follow by the end this season.
But history should also register the recent February lunch down the road from Tigerland where Neil Balme pondered his football mortality and accepted, not without some difficulty, that his time, too, at the club had come to an end.
In a conversation Balme described as briefly awkward, always caring but ultimately definitive, the Tigers CEO and his football boss Blair Hartley made it clear that season 2024 would be Balme’s last at the club.
Eavesdropping fellow diners at Richmond’s Rowena Parade Milk Bar would not have realised the significance of the conversation at first. Gale, Hartley and Balme have been part of a passing parade of Tigers’ staff and players at the cafe for years.
Breaking bread and drinking coffee, the Richmond bosses asked Balme about his health and well-being and plans for the future. They talked about how much he deserved a proper holiday. At some point, the penny dropped.
Balme, speaking exclusively to this masthead about the decision, said he had come to terms with his subtly enforced exit but admitted it had not sat comfortably with him for some days afterwards.
“I think they were making the point they want me to retire rather than move me on,” he said, “and in a sense that takes the pressure off all of us. For a day or two I did feel a little bit uncomfortable, but the reality is I’m out of the decision-making area, and it’s kind of like a changing of the guard.
“What they were saying was I’ve done my work at Richmond without any doubt. And while they have enormous respect for my relationship with the Richmond community the reality is I’ve been a bit crook and a bit weird.
“I’m not as strong mentally as I used to be, and I struggle with my emotions sometimes.”
Balme was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2020 after his first in a series of frightening seizures. Still very much a media frontman for the club and a highly effective conduit with sponsors, coterie groups and other heavy hitters, Balme was removed from the football department and its day-to-day processes in 2021 partly due to soft-cap constraints but remained an influential player in the Tigers’ fledgling AFLW program.
Although he was Melbourne coach when the teenaged Adem Yze was recruited to the Demons, Balme was not included in the coaching process to find Damien Hardwick’s replacement. He was not explicitly told, but it became clear over the pre-season he would no longer sit in the coaches’ box on match days.
“I’m not really part of match committee any more,” said Balme, “and they made a conscious decision not to have me involved [with Yze’s appointment] and I accepted that.”
A famously outspoken critic of the AFL and its processes, Balme, whose equally old-school football values have never prevented him having a positive impact on players and football departments, remains acutely self-aware about his diminishing role as a full-time football official in the era of increasing compliance.
“What I have to say doesn’t always suit them,” he observed of both club and head office. While Balme has a relationship with the new coach, “he doesn’t regularly come into my office and ask my advice”.
Gale, too, looks certain to depart Richmond to take over as inaugural chief of the new Tasmanian team, but he will ensure Balme receives a fitting send-off towards the end of 2024.
Whether he chooses to share his effective wisdom on a part-time basis with another club, work on another biography or share his stories as an after-dinner speaker, Balme will remain one of the game’s most fascinating and ultimately heroic characters.
After two premierships as a Richmond player and a successful coaching career at Norwood in the SANFL, Balme came close at Melbourne. He came close, too, on several occasions at the helm of Collingwood’s football operation. Sacked the first time, he moved to Geelong where the under-performing Cats won their first of three flags under his football stewardship.
Sacked the second time by the Magpies in late 2016 he moved to Richmond. If he could single out one key success over the past seven-and-a-half years it remains the drought-breaking 2017 premiership.
That came off the back of a 2016 review where Gale restructured the football department and placed Balme in charge and Peggy O’Neal fought significant political unrest. The only thing O’Neal’s board and the two separate groups of challengers agreed upon was that the club needed to bring back Neil Balme.
“I felt I had an impact,” he said. “I just encouraged them to do the things their values dictated. To make it simple. They were already doing a lot right. How I fitted in was terrific and in a sense it was easy because it felt like I was coming home.”
With so many key players going and gone from the Tigers’ premiership era, Balme still insists he holds no fears for the club which before 2017 had endured 37 years without a flag and for many of those years existed in a relative cultural wasteland.
“No I don’t,” he said. “I know people say this, but culturally they’ve never been in a better spot. Adem [Yze] and Tim [Livingstone] and Blair [Hartley] reflect the values and behaviours that they and others before them had put into place.
“It can always fall apart if you put the wrong people in of course, but I don’t see any danger of that happening here. There will be challenges on-field as we re-build but the attitude to training and the general feeling about the place is terrific.”
As he enters his 73rd year, Balme remains torn about his football future. He came close to leaving Richmond towards the end of 2021 when Mark Ricciuto led an Adelaide push seeking a football mentor for the relatively inexperienced new coach Matthew Nicks and his football boss Adam Kelly. But Balme’s medical specialist urged him not to make the geographic career change.
He calls Richmond home and sees his return for eight years as a football administrator and later ambassador and influencer at the club as his ultimate legacy. But he still believes he has something to offer.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl...ects-are-so-hard-to-read-20240314-p5fciw.html
“I’m not sure I’ll ever work full-time at a footy club again,” Balme said. “It’s a challenging job working in a footy club. They’re challenging places. But I’d love to keep helping others and in a lot of ways I’m ready for another challenge even if it’s on a consultancy basis.
“If I had to sum it up I can say I’ve come back to the club I called home for eight years, and we’ve had some success and everything comes to an end.
“This is just another part of the changing of the guard. I might have been a bit disappointed for about five minutes but in the end in their position I probably would have done the same thing.”
Football historians and Richmond supporters will look back and debate the final domino, which fell to end the Tigers’ premiership era.
Some will point to 2022, when a grieving Dustin Martin lost his football appetite and the club lost him for the best part of a season. Others to 2023 and the not-so-pleasant May Sunday morning when Hardwick told Gale he, too, had lost the hunger – at least for Richmond. Or in August, when a tearful Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt walked from the MCG for the final time in Tiger jumpers. Premiership president Peggy O’Neal had stepped away in 2022 with Gale set to follow by the end this season.
But history should also register the recent February lunch down the road from Tigerland where Neil Balme pondered his football mortality and accepted, not without some difficulty, that his time, too, at the club had come to an end.
As much as I didn’t ever want Balmy to leave again, it had to happen at some stage. He’s done his job. He has brought success on and off the field. He has made our club great again.
Thank you forever Neil Balme.
Thank you forever Neil Balme.
Groupie_
time to return the traditional Richmond yellow
reckon umps will see that and ramp up the umpire reamage as a parting gift for balmey
_RT_
Community Leader
- Sep 17, 2006
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- #61
Not exactly an article, but an announcement that the club has a new partnership, Load Restraint Systems, which could be somewhat beneficial to certain fans who might need help with restraint at time.
I'm talking about tradies
Won't work on Groupie_. Nothing could ever restrain him with any load he will be wanting to blow......
Oscar Piastri wears a $500,000 outfit to Australian F1 Grand Prix
Seven-time world champion Hamilton is well known for wearing eye-catching outfits to grands prix - but he was outdone by Piastri, who showed off his love for his favourite AFL team in Melbourne.
- Thread starter
- #65
![Richmond’s [PLAYERCARD]Nick Vlastuin[/PLAYERCARD]](/forum/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.guim.co.uk%2Fimg%2Fmedia%2Fd5d2ee9dc27aba987077dcadbff4f05e419b0317%2F0_0_4672_2992%2Fmaster%2F4672.jpg%3Fwidth%3D620%26quality%3D85%26auto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dmax%26s%3D1ec15df27ac0fec8ac9f28b4821f962b&hash=9474da58925c021aa3da381dd87fe6a5 "Richmond’s [PLAYERCARD]Nick Vlastuin[/PLAYERCARD]")
Haze lifts on Tigers’ AFL season as Swans win delivers more than just a victory
Richmond got many reminders that they’re on the right track at the MCG and that it should not be all doom and gloom at the clubJonathan Horn - Mon 1 Apr 2024
You can stick your honourable losses, most Richmond fans would have been thinking as they trudged to the MCG on Sunday. No more talk of brave, plucky performances. That was the old Richmond narrative, a narrative that disappeared, article by article, as they became a force again, a narrative that has crept back in recent times. Their Tigers were winless, their opponents undefeated, their timeslot curious, their city blanketed in a smoky haze, and their champion pensioned off by Kane Cornes. They needed something to hang their hats on, a reason to keep fronting up, some sort of indication that they’re not destined for bottom four dross.
They got the win against a very good Sydney side, but they got more than that. They got so many little reminders that they’re on the right track, that it’s not all doom and gloom, that there’s genuine talent and endeavour in the next generation of Tigers coming through. Ten of them had played less than 50 games but all played significant roles. It was Maurice Rioli’s repeat efforts, Seth Campbell’s clean hands, Rhyan Mansell’s vice-like tackles and the substitute Sam Banks, in just his seventh game, halving a crucial contest with 50 seconds to go.
It was the older hands too. Shai Bolton hardly qualifies as such, but he excels in red ball games at the MCG. Ace photographer Michael Willson, who nominates hazy, late autumn afternoons at the MCG as his optimal shooting conditions, says Bolton is his favourite footballer to snap. His camera was also presumably focussed on Nick Vlastuin, whose two-fisted spoils and intercept marks repelled Sydney all afternoon. Football has perhaps never been so replete with players of his ilk – resolute, rebounding defenders so adept at reading the ball off the boot further afield.
The first half of the Gold Coast game aside, no-one would have questioned Richmond’s endeavour heading into Sunday’s game. But it was scant consolation. It’s a frustrating place to be in – as a club, as a team and as a supporter base – when the memories of those glory years are still vivid, and when many of the stars who provided those memories are still present, but it’s just not working. You’re given the run-around by teams who, just a few years ago, weren’t fit to polish your boots. You’re playing in front of your former coach, a bunch of expats, kids and lifeguards. They have all the hype. You’re just…well you don’t quite know what you are, or what your place in the competition is. Not totally rebuilding. Not contending. Just remembering, and occasionally reminding. People say “oh, brave effort”. But it’s hollow.
There was plenty of that against Carlton in round two. They were gallant but what use is gallantry when the Blues are ****-a hoop? And the injury to Josh Gibcus was just wretched. He’d worked so hard to get his body right. He was looking right at home, in front of a big crowd and against some of the best forwards in the game. He was so important to this current iteration of Richmond. As a fan, he was a player you could pin your hopes on. He was a future leader. And crunch, his knee went. He knew straight away. He slammed his head into the turf, and most Richmond supporters did the same to the nearest wall.
Even last week against Port, they loomed at times, but some interesting umpiring, the weight of numbers and sheer talent of the visitors got them in the end. The next few years loomed as the occasional greatest hits show, some off-Broadway abominations, the gradual and respectful pensioning off of the premiership stars and hopefully the beginning of a distinct and viable style of play.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer but there were signs on Sunday for long-term optimism. Adem Yze spent the first few months in the job saying how he wants them to be a very different team to the Hardwick-era Tigers. In recent years, he says, they’ve been slaughtered at the contest and leaky down back. He doesn’t want them to be stuck in the past. But you don’t get a lot of time with your players over summer these days. You get bugger all time to implement a new style, and to get the kids up to speed. Adam Kingsley found that at GWS. They had to develop on the run, in season. What really fast-tracks development are wins like Sunday’s. Brave losses quickly wear thin. Wins against the odds, against genuine premiership contenders, are worth their weight in gold.
Haze lifts on Tigers’ AFL season as Swans win delivers more than just a victory | AFL | The Guardian
Richmond got many reminders that they’re on the right track at the MCG and that it should not be all doom and gloom at the club
Ctl
Premiership Player
- Oct 20, 2021
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it is a shame Balme is leaving, someone who stands up for the game, players and isn't afraid to upset the AFL
www.sen.com.au
“I hate it”: Neil Balme slams the AFL over lengthy bump suspensions
“I don’t think it’s fair to the players, personally...”
www.sen.com.au
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it is a shame Balme is leaving, someone who stands up for the game, players and isn't afraid the upset the AFL
“I hate it”: Neil Balme slams the AFL over lengthy bump suspensions
“I don’t think it’s fair to the players, personally...”
For such a fast physical sport...on such large football Ovals...with large amounts of playing space...AFL is absolutely unique...
The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption is totally focused on the minutia of the game...
Totally focused on the Millimeters of possible space between football and goalposts...did it touch or not...was it grazed?!?...
Totally focused as Balmey has spoken on the split seconds of footy judgement available for footballers in avoiding physical clashes...
The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption will even slow down video replays of said physical clashes between players...to a frame by frame freeze...to prove players had time to avoid and/or change their physical intentions...and be able to rest their blame!
FFS...leave it all for the Umpires to decide...stay right out of it! The Umps are the closest ones to the contest!
Let the Goal Umpire decide...that's what they are paid to do!
Field Umpire decide to report players...on the right or wrong of their actions...that's what they are paid to do!
Leave the unseen thuggery for the Camera and Tribunal to adjudicate!
The Hypocrisy of the The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption is sickening...come the Grand Final the whistle is swallowed...everybody is allowed to see the contest...sponsors and spectators and TV cameras...alike!
Vlas knocked out not a problem! Just tough footy! Play on...no reports!
Come the AFL Season proper...its ohhhh nooo...protect the sancticy of the players head!
The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption is totally focused on the minutia of the game...
Totally focused on the Millimeters of possible space between football and goalposts...did it touch or not...was it grazed?!?...
Totally focused as Balmey has spoken on the split seconds of footy judgement available for footballers in avoiding physical clashes...
The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption will even slow down video replays of said physical clashes between players...to a frame by frame freeze...to prove players had time to avoid and/or change their physical intentions...and be able to rest their blame!
FFS...leave it all for the Umpires to decide...stay right out of it! The Umps are the closest ones to the contest!
Let the Goal Umpire decide...that's what they are paid to do!
Field Umpire decide to report players...on the right or wrong of their actions...that's what they are paid to do!
Leave the unseen thuggery for the Camera and Tribunal to adjudicate!
The Hypocrisy of the The AFL Old Boys Club of Corruption is sickening...come the Grand Final the whistle is swallowed...everybody is allowed to see the contest...sponsors and spectators and TV cameras...alike!
Vlas knocked out not a problem! Just tough footy! Play on...no reports!
Come the AFL Season proper...its ohhhh nooo...protect the sancticy of the players head!
- Thread starter
- #69
Why Nathan Broad thinks Richmond is in the finals window
WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS![Article image for Why [PLAYERCARD]Nathan Broad[/PLAYERCARD] thinks Richmond is in the finals window](/forum/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.3aw.com.au%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F12%2F2024%2F04%2Fnathanbroad-getty-1200x800.jpg&hash=dee7cb6fa545f43073e1465e4eeadd1c "Article image for Why [PLAYERCARD]Nathan Broad[/PLAYERCARD] thinks Richmond is in the finals window")
Richmond triple premiership player Nathan Broad thinks Richmond is in the finals window with the club’s current list.
The Tigers had a big upset win at the Swans on Sunday and sit 1-3 to start the season under new head coach Adem Yze.
“I still see us in the window,” Broad told Sam McClure and Leigh Matthews on 3AW’s Wide World of Sports.
Press PLAY to hear the full interview
Why Nathan Broad thinks Richmond is in the finals window - 3AW Wide World of Sports
The triple premiership Tiger joined Sam McClure and Leigh Matthews.
omny.fm
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- Thread starter
- #70
Well browny used to play for Richmond so him beating up on Kane Cornes is delightful
- Thread starter
- #71
The bidding war for Richmond’s fabulous Baker boy
ByJake Niall
The AGELiam Baker met with both West Coast and Fremantle in 2022, before he decided to remain with Richmond, where he had played in premierships in 2019 and 2020.
West Coast were the stronger suitor then, even though an improved Fremantle played finals that year while the Eagles were in the early phase of a scorched earth recession that has not abated.
Richmond’s Liam Baker is hot property. CREDIT:AFL PHOTOS
Baker, weighing up his options as judiciously as he does on the field, just couldn’t leave Tigerland. Loyalty to teammates and comfort in the Richmond environment prevailed.
But in an era when top-shelf players are routinely given seven- and eight-year deals – long enough to see off a few prime ministers and Carlton coaches – Baker signed only for two seasons. He had the currency to secure a five-year contract if he wished.
So, he kept his options open.
In 2024, Baker has another call to make on whether he wishes to remain at Richmond or return to his home state of Western Australia, for family, friends and farm (Baker, like Fremantle champion, Nat Fyfe hails from Lake Grace).
There are a few considerations in Baker’s call.
The first one will be personal. Does he want to go home?
Then, if he decides to leave Melbourne, the decision turns to which of West Coast or Fremantle is the better choice. We can safely assume that the Eagles and Dockers will both want him if he’s available.
Staying, of course, means sticking with the club that overlooked his lack of height (173 centimetres) and the fact that they had an abundance of small forwards then (Jack Higgins and Dan Butler were then at Richmond, Daniel Rioli was still a forward), Baker having been drafted primarily as a forward. The Tigers felt then that he was simply too good to bypass.
It’s possible that one of the WA teams will want him more than the other. The Eagles certainly need mid-20s players more acutely than Fremantle, given their dismal state.
Conversely, Baker and his management might prefer the Dockers, who are the length of the Nullarbor ahead of their local rivals on the scale of premiership proximity.
Here’s summary of the options before Baker, who, as a seventh-year player, is not a free agent.
1. Stay at Richmond
This remains the easiest call to make. Richmond is his football home, the club that has nurtured and helped forge his career; it is also a powerful club, replete with history and seasoned, highly capable people at the helm, despite Damien Hardwick’s exit.Liam Baker (left) celebrates the Tigers’ 2019 premiership with star teammate Dustin Martin. CREDIT:JUSTIN MCMANUS
Baker is not likely to decide until the back half of the season, from what one can gather from people who know Baker’s situation. This should not necessarily be read as a portent of an exit, since he waited until late 2022 before re-signing.
This extra time allows him to see how the revamped coaching panel, headed by Adem Yze, operates and where the club is headed. Yze has praised Baker and made clear that he really wants him around, as the Tigers attempt to rise again with a mix of seasoned players and new kids.
There’s another potentially large carrot: the captaincy.
Toby Nankervis, now a standalone skipper, is 30 in August. Baker is a vice captain and one of the lead candidates to take over.
Should Baker stick with the Tigers, it would make sense to sign a long-term deal and secure his financial future.
2. West Coast
The Eagles, doubtless, would offer Baker an attractive contract and the prospect of a leadership role at a club he followed in his youth. They can offer him a vision of a power club’s restoration, which, admittedly, will take some years.The new list manager at West Coast, Matty Clarke, was recruiting manager at Richmond until a few weeks ago and was part of the team that drafted Baker. The new chief executive, Don Pyke, has exceptional football acumen and a mandate to remake the club.
And while players always want to win finals and flags, Baker has played in two premierships, and could be ready for a lifestyle change that revolves around family and friends in WA.
West Coast have been in a world of pain for a number of years now and have courted Baker before. CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES
The slows on West Coast are a) the sheer scale of the list reconstruction ahead, and b), the uncertainty around the senior coach, Adam Simpson and his allies.
It is hard to see Simpson surviving beyond his contract, which runs until the end of 2025, and he could well be leaving at the end of this season, given he barely survived 2023.
West Coast cannot sacrifice a first-round pick for Baker, considering their probable ladder position this year and next. If they’re on the bottom (a win on Sunday afternoon against the depleted Tigers would make that slightly less likely), they could use the pre-season draft as a lever to snare Baker or another player, with minimal draft cost. Under the rules, he can simply walk via the pre-season draft.
There’s little chance, however, that Baker will dud the Tigers by taking the pre-season draft path. More likely, Richmond would have to settle for an end-of-first-round – the Eagles surely will seek a priority pick as North did – or a second-round choice. Or something.
3. Fremantle
Should Baker decide to leave, the Dockers must be seriously considered – again, assuming they’re keen. On most counts, they have more to offer than West Coast.First, they’ve steadily built a formidable young playing list, headed by Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw, Luke Jackson and Hayden Young, and should be near contention from 2025 for a period of years.
Justin Longmuir looked shaky at the end of 2023, but the Dockers’ hierarchy has backed him – and he should be right for a couple more years minimum. Fremantle’s regime appears stable.
Fremantle, led by coach Justin Longmuir, arguably present as a more attractive option for Baker. CREDIT:AFL PHOTOS
Importantly, Fremantle have the draft capital to consummate a trade, without much fancy footwork or angst. The Dockers have three first-rounders this year – Collingwood’s (Lachie Schultz), Port Adelaide’s and their own. Baker is worth one first-round choice, outside the top 10. He falls into the good rather than great player category.
Baker’s choice is hardly comparable to that faced by Chris Judd, Lance Franklin or Jeremy Cameron. But, with shallow talent spread across 18 clubs and the Tassie Devils about to eviscerate the drafts, the former rookie lister has picked a good time to be up for grabs.
- Thread starter
- #72
Punt Rd Oval redevelopment has ballooned from about $65m to about $100m
The Richmond faithful have been asked to dig deep and fund the redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval “brick by brick’’ as costs of the major project soar.Herald Sun - Peter Rolfe
April 21, 2024
Richmond is launching a unique fundraising drive to help fund its Punt Rd Oval redevelopment.
Richmond will urge its Tiger army to help fund rebuilding its Punt Rd headquarters “brick by brick” in a nod to its yellow and black past designed to lock in the long-term future of the venue.
It comes as the cost of a state-of-the-art redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval has ballooned from about $65m to about $100m.
The club will on Monday announce a unique fundraising drive to deliver world-class facilities that will keep the Tigers in Richmond for generations to come.
The campaign will ensure every salvageable brick from the soon to be demolished Jack Dyer Stand, built in 1914, is cleaned and placed into the foundation of a major redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval.
Bricks from the soon to be demolished Jack Dyer Stand will be cleaned and placed into the foundation.
The redevelopment is designed to lock in the long-term future of the venue.
Fans will be urged to make a donation that will be used to clean and repurpose the bricks to use in a new, larger Jack Dyer Stand.
The redevelopment will also add a realigned, MCG-sized oval to Punt Rd and high quality training facilities for Richmond’s women's team.
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale told the Herald Sun the revamp would honour the legacy of Tigers legend Dyer and be the most historic infrastructure upgrade in the club’s history.
“All the permits have been issued, which is wonderful, so the last 12-18 months we’ve had quite a significant fundraising program and we’ve made substantial ground.” he said.
The revamp will add high quality training facilities for Richmond’s women's team.
Brendon Gale says the revamp will honour the legacy of Tigers legend Jack Dyer.
“But along the way our members and fans have asked how they could get involved and we always said we would preserve some of the heritage elements of the old Jack Dyer Stand – some of the bricks and timbers.
“Now we are and they will form part of the new development, which gives our hard core fans an opportunity to support a transformative project.”
Mr Gale said about 50,000 bricks taken from the existing Jack Dyer Stand would be incorporated in the new development, with about 1800 seats under cover and capacity for up to 8000 fans in total.
“It is capturing the past and investing in the future, which will be the new Jack Dyer Stand,” he said.
About 50,000 bricks taken from the existing Jack Dyer Stand will be incorporated in the new development.
Gale says it is capturing the past and investing in the future.
But he revealed the cost of the project had increased “significantly”, since first being mooted in 2020.
“As we’ve come out of Covid, like a lot of construction projects, there have been cost escalation issues with materials, supply chains and labour, so we’ve had to sort of recalibrate to some extent,” he said.
“It’s a big project and it’s an investment worth making in our future but it’s getting up to six figures – ballpark $100m.”
He said features of the revamp such as putting three levels of parking underground had added to the cost.
“But it’s a legacy that is going to serve the club and its stakeholders for the next 100 years really,” he said. “We just need to take this opportunity now.”
Donations of more than $2 will be tax deductible, with fans gifting $200 or more to receive a digital commemorative certificate acknowledging donation of a brick.
Last edited:
- Jan 3, 2012
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Why would anyone be surprised at the cost blowout , where is the govt money like that handed to the meth headsPunt Rd Oval redevelopment has ballooned from about $65m to about $100m
The Richmond faithful have been asked to dig deep and fund the redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval “brick by brick’’ as costs of the major project soar.
Herald Sun - Peter Rolfe
April 21, 2024
Richmond is launching a unique fundraising drive to help fund its Punt Rd Oval redevelopment.
Richmond will urge its Tiger army to help fund rebuilding its Punt Rd headquarters “brick by brick” in a nod to its yellow and black past designed to lock in the long-term future of the venue.
It comes as the cost of a state-of-the-art redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval has ballooned from about $65m to about $100m.
The club will on Monday announce a unique fundraising drive to deliver world-class facilities that will keep the Tigers in Richmond for generations to come.
The campaign will ensure every salvageable brick from the soon to be demolished Jack Dyer Stand, built in 1914, is cleaned and placed into the foundation of a major redevelopment of the Punt Rd Oval.
Bricks from the soon to be demolished Jack Dyer Stand will be cleaned and placed into the foundation.
The redevelopment is designed to lock in the long-term future of the venue.
Fans will be urged to make a donation that will be used to clean and repurpose the bricks to use in a new, larger Jack Dyer Stand.
The redevelopment will also add a realigned, MCG-sized oval to Punt Rd and high quality training facilities for Richmond’s women's team.
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale told the Herald Sun the revamp would honour the legacy of Tigers legend Dyer and be the most historic infrastructure upgrade in the club’s history.
“All the permits have been issued, which is wonderful, so the last 12-18 months we’ve had quite a significant fundraising program and we’ve made substantial ground.” he said.
The revamp will add high quality training facilities for Richmond’s women's team.
Brendon Gale says the revamp will honour the legacy of Tigers legend Jack Dyer.
“But along the way our members and fans have asked how they could get involved and we always said we would preserve some of the heritage elements of the old Jack Dyer Stand – some of the bricks and timbers.
“Now we are and they will form part of the new development, which gives our hard core fans an opportunity to support a transformative project.”
Mr Gale said about 50,000 bricks taken from the existing Jack Dyer Stand would be incorporated in the new development, with about 1800 seats under cover and capacity for up to 8000 fans in total.
“It is capturing the past and investing in the future, which will be the new Jack Dyer Stand,” he said.
About 50,000 bricks taken from the existing Jack Dyer Stand will be incorporated in the new development.
Gale says it is capturing the past and investing in the future.
But he revealed the cost of the project had increased “significantly”, since first being mooted in 2020.
“As we’ve come out of Covid, like a lot of construction projects, there have been cost escalation issues with materials, supply chains and labour, so we’ve had to sort of recalibrate to some extent,” he said.
“It’s a big project and it’s an investment worth making in our future but it’s getting up to six figures – ballpark $100m.”
He said features of the revamp such as putting three levels of parking underground had added to the cost.
“But it’s a legacy that is going to serve the club and its stakeholders for the next 100 years really,” he said. “We just need to take this opportunity now.”
Donations of more than $2 will be tax deductible, with fans gifting $200 or more to receive a digital commemorative certificate acknowledging donation of a brick.
- Thread starter
- #74
Why Hardwick and the Suns should just leave Dustin Martin alone
Jake Niall - THE AGE
Chief football writer, The AgeApril 21, 2024
“I never said I want to be alone. I only said ‘I want to be let alone.’ There is all the difference.”
Reclusive movie star Greta Garbo, 1955.
Dustin Martin’s desire to be left alone, in the manner of Greta Garbo, has been as defining a feature of his career as the fend-off, which is a well-worn, but fitting metaphor for Dusty’s aversion to the crowd.
Richmond champion Dustin Martin: will he change his colours?CREDIT:ARTWORK: MONIQUE WESTERMANN
Martin’s extreme shyness and dislike of the spotlight – bar his glowing presence on game day – is one of the reasons why there’s been a view in clubland that he could be prised out of Richmond.
Martin’s seven-year mega contract expires this year. Richmond have not put a contract on the table, in large part because Dusty hasn’t made any decisions about his future.
Martin has three immediate options: 1) Re-sign with the Tigers for 2025 and play on; 2) cross to another club, almost certainly in the northern states; 3) retire, after reaching 300 games and be remembered as a one-club great of the code.
Since 2022, if not earlier, Gold Coast have been mooted as the logical destination for Dusty if he decided he wanted out of town.
Note that there’s never been any hint that Dusty had any issue with the Richmond Football Club. Rather, it’s whether he’s had enough of living in the footy fishbowl in Melbourne.
The argument for Dusty exploring a move to the Suns has centred on the fact that they’re a getaway club, where AFL isn’t obsessively followed and even a high-vis superstar can find sanctuary, like Garbo.
The Suns also have significant ex-Richmond people at the helm, headed by former coach Damien Hardwick, with football bosses Wayne Campbell (performance) and Craig Cameron (list/recruitment) also knowing Martin well from their days at Tigerland.
That Martin has had contact with Gold Coast officials is hardly surprising, given the longstanding relationships.
But what is often lost in this discussion and speculation is whether, in fact, the Suns really need Dustin Martin.
They don’t.
For a number of reasons, the Suns should not pursue Dusty, should he decide he wants to leave Victoria. He’s not the right fit. To stick with the movie star motif, it would be like casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet.
Martin would be turning 34 next year and while he would certainly improve the Suns’ forward line for a year – assuming he is relatively fit and motivated – it would represent an extremely short-term move for Hardwick and company.
Gold Coast have one of the best lists of under 24-year-olds in the competition. But their peak contention period is still at least two years away (probably longer, considering the demography of recent premiers).
Dusty is unlikely to come cheap, either. He’s been paid well over $1 million since 2018 and even if he came for, say, $700,000, that money would be better utilised in the crucial task of retaining Matt Rowell, Ben King, Noah Anderson and others.
Hardwick aside, Martin would be the biggest figure to arrive at Gold Coast since Gary Ablett. Unlike Ablett, Dusty would not be willing to front the media or sell the club.
His sheer presence, however, would bring additional media to the Suns, which the AFL wouldn’t mind.
The Suns, though, have just brought in four teenage locals via their academy – headed by the enormously talented talls Jed Walter and Ethan Read. Once those kids mature, they can be the shopfront – Gold Coast’s answer to Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney – in a non-footy market that has struggled to support elite sporting clubs.
While Martin would engender excitement among young Suns teammates, and he is capable of mentoring, he does not represent the kind of on-field general and leader that four-time Hawthorn premiership great Luke Hodge was at the Brisbane Lions.
As it stands today, the Suns are unsure of whether to make a bid for Dusty, who has struggled with his body at times this year, missing games and some training sessions. Is he there in spirit? It’s a reasonable question.
There is no question that the death of his father Shane in 2022, who had been exiled from his son in New Zealand, was an enormous blow to the reticent champion.
He would suit the Swans or Giants more than Gold Coast, in terms of age and premiership profile and positional needs (he could take Heeney’s old forward role at Sydney), but one doubts that the Giants would have the cap space, and it is unclear whether the Swans would want such a short-term investment.
Martin’s shunning of the bright lights, paradoxically, has rendered him a mystery that merely heightened the public’s fascination with him – a conundrum that Greta Garbo endured. Almost every autograph seeker at Punt Rd wants Dusty’s scribble on their gear.
Richmond will offer him a decent deal, if he decides to play on with the club he helped transform and which is attempting a new frontier under Adem Yze and facing the expected exit of CEO Brendon Gale to the Tasmania Devils.
Like most football followers, this column would prefer that he bows out as a Tiger, rivalling Kevin Bartlett and Royce Hart for the mantle of Richmond’s greatest since World War Two.
Garbo’s wish sums up Martin’s relationship with the game. That he wants to be left alone does not mean that he is alone. Richmond have been another family.
Martin’s future is up to Martin. The Suns should just leave him alone.
Why Hardwick and the Suns should just leave Dustin Martin alone
Dustin Martin’s seven-year mega contract at Richmond expires this year, and since 2022, if not earlier, Gold Coast have been mooted as the logical destination for Dusty if he wanted out. But does he?
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