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Brett Deledio (merged)
- Thread starter TIGEREXTRA
- Start date
We got the best of Lids. A durable consistent A grader. I don't know anything about how it ended, but his body was shot and both player and club were keen to part for 2017. The pain of seeing his team win the GF without him will always be there for him, but I like to remember the versatility, courage and skill he demonstrated in so many games. A great tiger in some ordinary sides.
Back then we had no money to support an Australia-wide recruiting team (so selection mistakes were made) and we had a poor development program to help young players like Meyer and the others. Also not enough support for indigenous players like Tambling but now we are probably leaders in that area. I remember going to the first open training session after the 2004 draft and Deledio was mobbed by dozens of supporters but Meyer and the others were standing by the fence with no one showing any interest in them. I remember Sheedy once saying that he would have selected Meyer so he must have looked good at U18 level but just could not make the jump to senior level. I think being away from home (Adelaide) with little support structure here made life difficult for him. He was lightly built and never seemed quite tough enough to be a professional footballer. Don't think our leaders at the time really helped younger players enough, possibly saw them as a threat to their own spots on the team.Was actually 5 picks.
1. Deledio
4. Tambling
12. Meyer
16. Pattison
20. Polo
Now our current leaders welcome new players and everyone supports each other to become better for the good of the team which is a fantastic change in culture brought about by Benny and Dimma, etc. Go tigers.
I can’t believe all the well wishes for a bloke who dumped us to go find success at another club. No sour grapes from me but he’s a tiger no longer in my eyes
Correct. That was our plan.
Incredibly harsh.
I admire Lids for saying "I need a change". We bemoan players not wanting to win enough and Lids made a call, albeit the wrong one about going to a club that was in a position to win a flag. He earned that right beyond dispute. Brad Ottens on the other hand.
Maybe history will be rewritten:
Brett D was a champion Richmond player, 2 x AA, etc. He made the ultimate sacrifice, knowing that his body was shot, to be traded to GWS for high draft picks and providing the final pieces of a magnificent Richmond premiership.
Brett D was a champion Richmond player, 2 x AA, etc. He made the ultimate sacrifice, knowing that his body was shot, to be traded to GWS for high draft picks and providing the final pieces of a magnificent Richmond premiership.
While hawthorn got Roughhead franklin and lewis.
Not sure which group i would choose.
No wonder our recruitment department
Struggled.
5 picks in the top 20 unbelievable.
It was our big mouth the night before the draft we let it out.
We had no intentions taking Franklin but we were very keen on GRoughead.
Therefore hawthorn swooped with there first pick and then Tambling Griffens and Franklin were in the next group.
We took Tambling
Footscray took griffens
And then hawthorn got Franklin.
The rest is history
For 20 year's clubs would know who was on our radar way before the draft.
Not quite.
Digs had committed to Griffen, he was always going there.
Lids
Roughie
Griffen
Bling
Buddy
That was the order they went. Dogs let Buddy go as well, but we let him go twice.
But we traded Fiona for Snake that year, so not all bad.
Wallace reckons he phoned all of the likely top ten and invited them to the BBQ in the event they were drafted by Richmond.
I think this was posted before we heard Brett's interviews late yesterday when he said at the end of 2016 he was 'cooked' both in his body with his Achilles injury and mentally because both he and the club had performed so poorly. He was ready to quit football when GWS showed interest and gave him a fresh start and a reason to keep going. No hard feelings from me.
I’m a Lids fan but I’m not sure that sounds quite right.
Didn’t the GWS thing happen rather late in the piece and quite out of the blue (especially when his regular appearances on the Club podcast always made it seem like he was with us for the long haul).
Then all of a sudden there was a suggestion of him going to Geelong.
So I’ve no doubt that he was always going to play on in 2017 but he made a conscious decision to leave Richmond.
Didn’t work out for him - did for us. But no hard feelings.
After missing the last six games on top of the dismal year that was 2016, he would've confronted his football mortality. Who could blame him for thinking he wasn't going to win a flag if he stayed at Richmond?
The Bulldogs were the other club mentioned in dispatches - three clubs which played on PF day. No doubt he went searching for a flag. Just bad luck, like jumping off a 25/1 chance at the track for a 7/2 hope and the longshot wins.
He sacrificed plenty when he signed a five-year extension in 2012 and in the end, left by mutual agreement. It was hardly similar to e.g. Treloar walking out on the Giants for cash. Yeah, no hard feelings.
It's still beggars belief how we got a first rounder for him. One of the great steals in AFL/VFL history.
B
Bill James
Guest
That was a very weak draft year. Would have been hard to get four 200 game players. McGaune is top 20 for games played to put it in context.
