We’ll The Wilkie /Pato stories are fact I remember because well I mentioned it at the time. It’s not the VFL assistants it’s the senior coachRichmond is a very stable side and the moment they made substantial playing list changes they fell apart. The Dogs changed more pieces but they rebuilt after their last premiership and again built a youth side based around a core of stars then cherry picked missing pieces. How many assistants did we go through? I wouldn't have thought it was any higher than most other clubs. Hawthorn had the best coach going around but a sh*t playing list and he's a bottom of the ladder coach.
We played Acres in different positions at Sandy because we operated like two seperate clubs before we did a take over. That is because of the austerity measures I've mentioned. They seemed to think that you could operate an AFL club with out investing in key areas. That is poor development but not due to staffing issues. I don't remember Wilkie coming in as a ruckman. I thought he played KPB from his first game. I never remembered Paton playing anywhere but back either.
Agree with playing players to strengths, absolutely stupid to do otherwise. Richmond turned themselves around when they realised that that was possible.
Here it goes
Simon Mcfee
Paul Hudson
Aaron Hamill
Lindsey Gilbee
Jake Batchelor
Unfortunately I don’t any lasted more then 2 years under Richo Hudson being the best of the lot.