A seven-person group including a pair of Richmond premiership players in Bryan Wood and Bruce Monteath is pushing for a spill of the Richmond board as the 2016 off-season draws nearer.
There have been some rumours regarding attempts to challenge the board at Richmond for a while now and it seems that, for at least one faction, it has finally come to fruition.
The group call themselves ‘Focus on Footy’, a name that makes their agenda pretty clear. Richmond has been a pretty successful club off the field in recent times but fans are hungry for more on-field success, which has been a barren area for the Tigers for quite some time.
Their plan does not include removing incumbent coach Damien Hardwick and they also intend to retain CEO Brendon Gale and football boss Dan Richardson. The group will be looking to create a new position in the organisation, ‘CEO of football’, with the intent of luring Neil Balme to the job.
Balme was recently replaced as Collingwood’s football boss by Graeme Allan and is currently weighing up whether to take up a different role at Collingwood or move elsewhere. He has reportedly said he is not interested in being part of a board spill.
The group has contacted Richmond’s current board with a request for them to stand down. They are petitioning for an Extraordinary General Meeting to be called where they will put forward a ticket to be elected as the new Richmond board.
They have claimed to have “high-profile Richmond identities” supporting the ticket, though no names have surfaced.
“Make no mistake — this challenge is the real deal. There is a fighting fury amongst us. The Richmond Football Club is in crisis,” says Dr Martin Hiscox, the group’s leader.
“The current board has lived by a mantra of stability. This has now been replaced with overstated ‘strong and bold premiership club’, but there is nothing strong or bold about being complacent.
“It’s been difficult with all the mixed messages from Punt Road. If football isn’t taking a lot more seriously, it won’t be top eight next year, it will be bottom four.
“(We want an) inspired football culture… of success, accountability and ruthless, uncompromising football.
“We need to have right people and make right decisions. Clear decision has to involve a focus on football.”
Whether or not a movement like this is any realistic chance of succeeding isn’t clear but it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.
It’s not hard to understand how, despite making finals regularly over the past few years, Tigers fans could feel frustrated with the incumbent leadership, especially after such a stark dropaway in 2016.
However, like the fan in the stands who complains that he could have done it better when a player misses a set shot, it’s a pretty rare occasion that anyone is really willing to put their money where their mouth is.
While many would agree that there is need for change at Richmond – possibly at board level, possibly at other levels – it’s not a great idea just to change for change’s sake and give the job to whoever is the first to ask for it.
Like politics of any kind, it’s pretty easy to criticise the incumbents. It’s easy enough to say some good rhetoric and get people believing that it really is time for change. But overthrowing the old regime is not the hard part – building a successful new one is.
A lot of the board’s rhetoric, too, sounds more like the rage of fans than the wisdom of the enlightened.
Lines like “we are 35 years into a five-year plan” are the kind of thing you’d expect to hear in an angry mid-game Tigers fan tweet rather than in a professional press conference.
This ‘team of players Richmond could have drafted but didn’t’ feels about as amazingly amateurish as it gets, too.
Essentially, Tigers fans must ask themselves two questions – do we need change? And if the answer to that is yes – a resounding chorus of it, most likely – the much bigger question is, is this the right change to make?
asd
Guest
if hardwick does no good next year lock in bomber do it now
Slane
Guest
The press conference sounded like an opposition politician speech. Full of cliches and criticism with absolutely no substance.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I've seen this movie before. This sort of thing rarely ends well, also, to mention Neil Balme when they haven't even talked to him, raises more questions than it answers.
Adam Daunt
Roar Guru
If they don't at least consider the aspect of a leadership change amongst Richardson, Gale or Hardwick, how do they expect to change without significant change? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result. Also I'd say it may be a bit of an overreaction, the Tigers have made finals (with the exception of this year) every year since 2013. Bomber Thompson had his struggles at Geelong, it was seven years or nine years before he had his triumph. The Tigers need another two A-graders as do most teams, they're hard to find. Prestia adds that and if Richmond abandon their need for stability and give in to the pursuit of perfection and being ruthless, I think they can jump up the ranks. Markov looks good as does Castagna. There's hope and I think it's far from crisis mode.
Brian S
Guest
If they are going to change it needs to be a total clean out end of story!!! otherwise it's just a band aid solution!
Chancho
Roar Rookie
this is a funny one because in my view, albeit limited, the Richmond Board seems to have actually been doing alright. Commercially they have been successful with some of the highest attendance/viewing numbers in the league, they have been profitable for the last 11-yrs in a row. The Board itself is comprised of directors that look to be as well suited to the role as other clubs. They even have Malcolm Speed on the Board (although many wouldn't rank his tenure at the ICC as great for the game, but that's a totally different discussion). I actually think that the Board is doing alright, whether it's 'inspiring' like this new mob think they can be is another matter? What seems to be the problem is, and I don't think this comes as any surprise, the Football Department. OK, you can point to them making the finals 'x out of the last y years', but lets be honest, they never looked like getting to a GF let alone taking the flag in any of those years. Hardwick to his credit lifted them from a pretty miserable spot post Wallace in 2010, but I think he's run out of ideas. Not sure if anyone remembers the nail-biting game early in the year when they lost to Collingwood, that was a dire game of footy, one in which it looked like neither side wanted to win, but I mean if this is the best that Hardwick is coming up with now, I think he needs to go. I also notice on the Tiges' website they have a few assistant roles vacant maybe there's some room for a bit of a clear out/change there? But to me, herein lies a problem; this potential new board aren't looking to make many changes in this FD area and retain the current CEO/coaching staff, so I don't actually see how they plan to get this sustained success? Whats really odd though is this CEO of football idea... ok, I actually rate Neil Balme, I reckon he's a pretty good diplomat just from my view of his time at the Pies, but I can't see what that added layer would achieve. I remember you did a piece on a Dan Richardson interview on SEN earlier in the year and all the mixed messages coming out of the club, so I'm not sure how/what this changes?
big four sticks
Guest
Hardwick, the board, and recruiting staff have to go.
Lamby
Roar Rookie
Every 2nd round player was 'missed' by every other team. The Tigers could have picked pretty much every player on the Crows list at the moment! It is a very silly exercise. Why would a bunch of 'non-insiders' make a statement about keeping the coach? Surely you would look at every position? I can't see in what universe Hardwick keeps his job at any other club.
Paul D
Roar Guru
It’s the sort of platform you’d expect from a political campaign these days. Short on details about what they themselves are going to do, and a heavy focus on everything else the other mob has stuffed up or done wrong. And yes that “team that could have been” is a giant waste of time. Captain Hindsight would be the best drafter in the world if he had the job, but unfortunately he doesn’t.
Axle and the Guru
Guest
Richmond definitely need a change at board level, they are going nowhere, time for someone else to have a go.
Cat
Roar Guru
Tigers are going nowhere as long as they retain Hardwick.