Bennycoff said:
Richmond have the chance but may struggle next season. The Tigers need to get rid of the players like Stafford, Tivendale and other older players (big calls I know) . They havent't really started rebuilding fully or fully going for the premiership. Theyre caught in two minds and it looks like they wont be able to win a premiership until they play more of their younger guys/.
What a load of crap, Stafford is probably only going to stay on for one more year to give us ruck depth. Tivendale is every chance to go in the trade period. Chaffey is only holding his spot until one of our kids develop into a tagger. We've picked up 17 kids in the last 2 drafts, thats HALF an AFL side's senior list in only 2 years, plus whomever we select this year.
We aren't caught in two minds at all, we are developing in a different way to Hawthorn. Hawks are just throwing every kid they have into the deep end by selecting their kids in the senior side as soon as possible, however Richmond is letting the senior players play most of the games while letting our kids develop in the VFL. This doesn't mean we aren't rebuilding, it just means that we're rebuilding in a different way. Its debatable which way is better, I guess we'll find out in a few years, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that playing kids too early will stunt their development.
There is no point just loading up your list with kids just for the sake of it. This years draft is said to be fairly weak, I know Greg Miller has said we'll probably only take 3 players. So why should we delist all our senior players when we'll just have to fill the list up with 4th, 5th & 6th round picks in a weak draft and have to give them a 2 year deal. Next year is the strong crop of kids we want to make room for, so we'll see a bigger clean out next year when there's the talent to fill the list up with. Our kids from the last two years will also be then starting to hit their 20s and will be playing a more prominent role in the side.
But I'm sure you won't pay any attention to anything I've just said.