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- Oct 7, 2009
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- Fremantle
In 1997 a Fremantle team desperate for on field leadership handed over pick 2 to Richmond for Chris Bond. Richmond would take Brad Ottens with the selection.
Chris would go on to have two fairly lean years at the club before pulling up stumps to take on a coaching development role at the Western Bulldogs although he can take credit for captaining the first Freo derby win.
While Richmond did not get the best out of Ottens, that honour goes to Geelong, on face value you add the trade to the list of short sighted desperate deals that held the club back for so long.
Fast forward to 2007 and Chris returns to the club in an admin role. Immediately the club goes on an audacious clean out and he plays a key role in defining a new list management strategy that would see the club building through the draft.
You wonder whether a move to Freo is on the cards if not for the two years spent in Perth in 1998/99. While he can't take full credit for the talent that has come through the door he has been the master of the current list strategy including the following moves:
- first club to utilise the expansion list concessions by getting Faulks and Mzungu for the cost of dropping a few places late in the draft;
- using the rookie draft to get mature age stars like Michael Barlow;
- first club to sign a free agent Danyle Pearce;
- key role in bringing Ross Lyon to Fremantle.
In a week when a lot of tributes are flowing to the Fremantle Football Club the question I leave is did we win the Richmond deal when we introduced Chris Bond to the club in 1998.
Chris would go on to have two fairly lean years at the club before pulling up stumps to take on a coaching development role at the Western Bulldogs although he can take credit for captaining the first Freo derby win.
While Richmond did not get the best out of Ottens, that honour goes to Geelong, on face value you add the trade to the list of short sighted desperate deals that held the club back for so long.
Fast forward to 2007 and Chris returns to the club in an admin role. Immediately the club goes on an audacious clean out and he plays a key role in defining a new list management strategy that would see the club building through the draft.
You wonder whether a move to Freo is on the cards if not for the two years spent in Perth in 1998/99. While he can't take full credit for the talent that has come through the door he has been the master of the current list strategy including the following moves:
- first club to utilise the expansion list concessions by getting Faulks and Mzungu for the cost of dropping a few places late in the draft;
- using the rookie draft to get mature age stars like Michael Barlow;
- first club to sign a free agent Danyle Pearce;
- key role in bringing Ross Lyon to Fremantle.
In a week when a lot of tributes are flowing to the Fremantle Football Club the question I leave is did we win the Richmond deal when we introduced Chris Bond to the club in 1998.
