Danny Frawley
richmondfc.com.au
5:03:57 PM Wed 9 April, 2003
As an opposition player preparing for a match against Richmond in the early 1990s, you knew that if you could stop Knights and Campbell in the midfield, you had a good chance of beating the Tigers.
So, as an outsider looking in back then, my perception of Wayne Campbell was that he was very much a key to Richmond's chances.
These days, with the advantage of several years now in the Tigers' Den, my opinion of Wayne has grown even further.
He's one guy that deserves all he gets out of footy. His preparation is first class and he is the consummate professional in the way he goes about his football business, setting a shining example for the young players at the Club to follow.
Unfortunately, there's been a tendency by some people in the football world to compare Wayne Campbell to other top-line league players such as Michael Voss, or Wayne Carey or Nathan Buckley. But it's impossible to fairly compare players.
Wayne Campbell is Wayne Campbell and pound for pound, inch for inch, he gets the absolute most out of himself -- and that's all I, as coach, can ask for. What you see is what you get with Wayne, and I'm more than happy with that.
In my time at Richmond, Wayne has finished runner-up in the Best and Fairest to an All-Australian in Darren Gaspar, he won it last year (for the fourth time), and he was coming home with a wet sail in my first year here after missing several weeks through injury.
It's certainly fair to say that he has been the most consistent of all our players since I've been coach.
Consistency of effort is one of our slogans at Tigerland this year, and that really epitomises Wayne Campbell. You know what you're going to get from Wayne every time he steps out. He's going to be rated somewhere between seven and eight and a half on most match days. And, as he showed last year on a couple of occasions, he's still very much capable of being a matchwinner!
At times, he's had to shoulder too much of the load in the team and that's why it's been important to pick up a player of Kane Johnson's quality to add to the midfield mix. We need Kane, along with emerging young players in Mark Coughlan and David Rodan to ease the burden on Wayne because he's at a stage in his career where we shouldn't be expecting him to win games for us -- even though he remains able to do so.
With a number of our taller players out injured at the moment, I envisage Wayne playing up forward a bit more frequently, as well as on-ball. He's proven he can kick goals and he's pretty good overhead, so he can certainly provide our forward line with a lift. In our best possible line-up, however (which, of course very rarely gets on the paddock), I see him in a sweeping role across half-back. I think that will evolve over the next year or two.
All in all, I don't mind admitting that I'm a Wayne Campbell fan. As captain, he displays exactly the right sort of qualities that I'm looking for in a leader. He has the passion, the drive and the commitment to strive for the ultimate success and, hopefully, that will be passed on to all the young players at the Club. Your captain has to be the one that pulls the troops together when things aren't going too well. He also needs to have the respect of his teammates -- that's very important. In Wayne's case, I can assure you that the Richmond players have tremendous respect for him.
At age 30, Wayne's now in the twilight of his illustrious league career. A lot of our youngsters probably don't realise it, but in the next two or three years, he's going to retire at some stage. I'd just like to make sure that he doesn't leave with "just" Best and Fairests and All-Australians next to his name.
As an individual, he's achieved virtually everything there is to achieve in the game. But he'd gladly give it all away to play in a premiership side with his beloved Tigers. That really would cap his career off in the best possible -- and most deserved -- way . . .
richmondfc.com.au
5:03:57 PM Wed 9 April, 2003
As an opposition player preparing for a match against Richmond in the early 1990s, you knew that if you could stop Knights and Campbell in the midfield, you had a good chance of beating the Tigers.
So, as an outsider looking in back then, my perception of Wayne Campbell was that he was very much a key to Richmond's chances.
These days, with the advantage of several years now in the Tigers' Den, my opinion of Wayne has grown even further.
He's one guy that deserves all he gets out of footy. His preparation is first class and he is the consummate professional in the way he goes about his football business, setting a shining example for the young players at the Club to follow.
Unfortunately, there's been a tendency by some people in the football world to compare Wayne Campbell to other top-line league players such as Michael Voss, or Wayne Carey or Nathan Buckley. But it's impossible to fairly compare players.
Wayne Campbell is Wayne Campbell and pound for pound, inch for inch, he gets the absolute most out of himself -- and that's all I, as coach, can ask for. What you see is what you get with Wayne, and I'm more than happy with that.
In my time at Richmond, Wayne has finished runner-up in the Best and Fairest to an All-Australian in Darren Gaspar, he won it last year (for the fourth time), and he was coming home with a wet sail in my first year here after missing several weeks through injury.
It's certainly fair to say that he has been the most consistent of all our players since I've been coach.
Consistency of effort is one of our slogans at Tigerland this year, and that really epitomises Wayne Campbell. You know what you're going to get from Wayne every time he steps out. He's going to be rated somewhere between seven and eight and a half on most match days. And, as he showed last year on a couple of occasions, he's still very much capable of being a matchwinner!
At times, he's had to shoulder too much of the load in the team and that's why it's been important to pick up a player of Kane Johnson's quality to add to the midfield mix. We need Kane, along with emerging young players in Mark Coughlan and David Rodan to ease the burden on Wayne because he's at a stage in his career where we shouldn't be expecting him to win games for us -- even though he remains able to do so.
With a number of our taller players out injured at the moment, I envisage Wayne playing up forward a bit more frequently, as well as on-ball. He's proven he can kick goals and he's pretty good overhead, so he can certainly provide our forward line with a lift. In our best possible line-up, however (which, of course very rarely gets on the paddock), I see him in a sweeping role across half-back. I think that will evolve over the next year or two.
All in all, I don't mind admitting that I'm a Wayne Campbell fan. As captain, he displays exactly the right sort of qualities that I'm looking for in a leader. He has the passion, the drive and the commitment to strive for the ultimate success and, hopefully, that will be passed on to all the young players at the Club. Your captain has to be the one that pulls the troops together when things aren't going too well. He also needs to have the respect of his teammates -- that's very important. In Wayne's case, I can assure you that the Richmond players have tremendous respect for him.
At age 30, Wayne's now in the twilight of his illustrious league career. A lot of our youngsters probably don't realise it, but in the next two or three years, he's going to retire at some stage. I'd just like to make sure that he doesn't leave with "just" Best and Fairests and All-Australians next to his name.
As an individual, he's achieved virtually everything there is to achieve in the game. But he'd gladly give it all away to play in a premiership side with his beloved Tigers. That really would cap his career off in the best possible -- and most deserved -- way . . .
