Richard Tambling

Originally Richmond's First Round Pick, taken over "Buddy Franklin".... Traded to the Crows in 2010 and allocated to Sturt, in and out of the Crows side in 2011, played some very average games for Sturt in 2011 and to be blunt this season is struggling even worse IMO, when the Crows had to replace McKernan his name was not mentioned at all.

Is it the end of the road for Richard Tambling? Will he find himself playing for Sturt's reserves in the next few weeks? What has happened to a lad that played some very good footy initially? If Sturt drop him to the reserves will be be looking for another SANFL club? Will another SANFL side even take him?

For a lad to fall so far in rankings as Tambling, you need to ask if he just had one really good year in junior footy, or are there other issues in life preventing him from getting the best out of himself on the football field.

I remember the package, the videos of 10 of the best junior talent in football at the time. There they were, Deledio, Franklin, Roughead, Griffen, Tambling, Lewis etc, and there was no reason to suspect he was out of his depth. I have been stunned to see how things have evolved.

My guess is the enormous success Franklin experienced and the continued reference to Tambling being a failure possibly entered his psyche to the degree he lost confidence. Once that goes, it's all uphill from there.

Maybe Tambling needs to ask himself if football is still his priority, or are there other avenues in life he could be exploring instead. Only Tambling can answer that.

As a Richmond supporter, I am still gobsmacked that we picked him over Buddy. Whilst RT was serviceable, I don't think he was one of these star juniors that could have the mentality to make it in the big league. A sad story IMO.

The problem is that at the time these players were recruited, no one knew that Buddy would turn into the star he is. They could only base their judgement on the lads at the time. Some get it right, some get it wrong. Fremantle with McLeod, Adelaide with Pavlich etc etc... Some just turn out better or worse than others.

Big Phil wrote:The problem is that at the time these players were recruited, no one knew that Buddy would turn into the star he is.

Not quite true. I know a guy who was a recruitment officer for the Crows at that time, he saw Buddy kick 10 goals in an underage game and wanted him to be the Crows 1st pick, but he was gone before they could select him. He told me everyone (except for Terry Wallace apparantly) expected Buddy to be a star.

Hawthorn also had Buddy as a high priority and thought Richmond would take him first, so they were going to select Deledio. Then the Hawks, gambling that Richmond wouldn't take him with pick 4, and knew Griffen was the Bulldogs' 1st choice, opted for Roughead at 2, hoping Buddy would still be there at 5.

The reason for this is because the club had become disenchanted by the exodus of players to their home states, Allan, Jarman, McPharlin, etc, so they took a Victorian lad first. It was gamble that paid off. Once Deledio went to the Tigers, the Hawks set their sights on the two talls, and didn't want to miss out on Roughead.

Interesting how some things can pan out.

Here's the wiki list of the 2004 Draft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_AFL_Draft

The Crows and Power didn't fare too well with their picks (Van Berlo excepted).

howthewestwaswon wrote:Interesting how some things can pan out.

Here's the wiki list of the 2004 Draft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_AFL_Draft

The Crows and Power didn't fare too well with their picks (Van Berlo excepted).

Thomson, Willits, Ezard, Deluca and Eckerman. We didn't do very well out of that draft at all, did we?

Westies with 4 in the top 25

Chris Knights has been valuable too HTWWW for the Crows. Trades worked out well for some.

Booney wrote:

howthewestwaswon wrote:Interesting how some things can pan out.

Here's the wiki list of the 2004 Draft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_AFL_Draft

The Crows and Power didn't fare too well with their picks (Van Berlo excepted).

Thomson, Willits, Ezard, Deluca and Eckerman. We didn't do very well out of that draft at all, did we?

Dont foret to add Elijah Ware from the pre season draft Booney

Noodles ended up having a good career with the Dogs, though

Lets focus on Tambling at SANFL level. Has anyone seen him in his games at Sturt this year ?

howthewestwaswon wrote:As a Richmond supporter, I am still gobsmacked that we picked him over Buddy. Whilst RT was serviceable, I don't think he was one of these star juniors that could have the mentality to make it in the big league. A sad story IMO.

with hindsight it's easy