AFL off-season: Richmond CEO Brendon Gale nearing new deal with the club
Instrumental to the revival of the Richmond Football club, the triple premiers are now on the verge of signing up their chief Tiger for another three years.
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Richmond is closing in on a new three-year deal for chief executive Brendon Gale, which will take his tenure to at least 15 seasons.
Long regarded as one of the most admired administrators in the game, Gale has been touted as a potential replacement for AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan when he chooses to depart the position.
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Gale has played a huge role in the Tigers’ modern revival, having taken over the role in late 2009 and setting the club some ambitious targets including three flags by the end of 2020.
As Gale told the Herald Sun last week, he remains confident the Tigers will continue to be a major player on and off the field deep into the future, including three premierships in four seasons before missing the finals this year.
Long-time president Peggy O’Neal, who is overseeing the new deal for Gale, will stand down from her position at the end of next season after a specularly successful period.
O’Neal and Gale have overseen a transformation of the club, helping to turn the Tigers into an AFL powerhouse on and off the field.
Triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick also has a deal with the club until the end of 2024.
How ‘exhausted’ Tigers plan to prise open flag window
Brendon Gale is about to artfully dodge the real reasons behind Richmond’s extraordinary downfall in 2021 when he instead decides it is time for a truth bomb.
Richmond’s campaign for a fourth premiership in five years blew up catastrophically as the Tigers could eke just two wins and draw from their final 10 games.
Gale ponders spinning some corporate-speak about the perfect storm of injuries, form and tactical advantages stripped from Richmond when he decides to just call a spade a bloody shovel.
Asked about whether coach Damien Hardwick is invigorated after a strange old year with at least one bizarre outburst, Gale hedges and equivocates then comes clean.
“No doubt it’s been challenging ... It’s been tough ... You can’t ever say it publicly at the time, but there were times last year where we were exhausted. Exhausted as a club. As an entire club. I was only saying to someone yesterday that this time last year we were only just getting home (from Queensland),” he tells the Herald Sun as he articulates Richmond’s battle plan for 2022.
“So, I just think the break and early finish helps. We were unfortunate not to play finals but you take the opportunity to rest and recover mentally and physically.
“And you begin a really thorough preparation that has invigorated everyone, no more so than the coach. He is as driven as everyone, and he’s proud. We all are, and we think we are better than what we were able to deliver last year. We have done the work to understand why and we are looking forward to responding.”
Five years after the entire football community leapt aboard the Tiger Train there was a large dose of schadenfreude as Richmond crashed from contention.
Gale wants the Tiger Army to know the Richmond hierarchy led by Hardwick, Blair Hartley and Tim Livingstone aren’t just writing it off as an aberration that will be rectified as a matter of course.
Four massive seasons that saw the Tigers go deep into September each year and a series of hub-life controversies all took their cumulative toll.
But the Tigers have also spent those 11 weeks since the Round 23 draw against Hawthorn scheming and strategising and stripping back the excuses to get to the root cause of all the issues.
The reasons on face value are a combination of a savage injury toll, a lack of hunger from a side that has climbed the mountain so often and a game plan that was exposed by the new stand rule when injuries hit.
Gale is adamant the Tigers can contend while still transitioning into the new era.
This will not be a wasted year of just playing the kids or spending a season farewelling Jack Riewoldt and Trent Cotchin.
The Tigers might be “striking a balance between regenerating and contending”, as Gale says, but the emphasis is very much on contending.
“All I will say is we are really excited. We have a very strong, hungry team that’s very competitive and still in the zone. I think we have studied. We have some really smart people in our organisation that have a really strong sense of where we are at. We have looked at other clubs who have experienced this through history. We have been pretty competitive in the last few years and we have a whole bunch of picks in the top 30 (7, 15, 26, 27, 28).
“It shouldn’t be the case, but it is the case. It gives us an opportunity to draft for talent and to add to our list and we have still got some experienced players that are still very driven and hungry. So we will be thereabouts.”
Asked if there are examples of clubs the Tigers look to as they attempt to extend their window, Gale looks down the highway.
“I think you look at Geelong. You can’t help but admire Geelong. So we don’t need to look too much forward than them.”
Gale has cause for optimism in the list transition because Richmond has found so many uncut gems in recent years even without high draft picks.
From Sydney Stack to Marlion Pickett to Matthew Parker to Rhyan Mansell, Richmond has recruited from unlikely sources including the summer rookie list and mid-season draft.
His hope is that with those five early picks – with the possibility of trading into even earlier selections – the recruiting team led by Matthew Clarke can find the stars of the next decade.
“In all areas we have begged, we have borrowed, we have stolen. It is fascinating. I didn’t realise until a week after the premiership, but Melbourne didn’t have one rookie in the premiership team. So our guys have proven that they can make good informed picks, but it’s been a while since we have had a top-10 pick, so we have full confidence we will put them to good use.”
But the departure of Callum Coleman-Jones to North Melbourne on a deal understood to be $475,000 a season must have rocked the Tigers given their investment in the No.20 pick.
“Oh, not rocked. Not rocked. At the end of the day the young fella wasn’t getting enough looks. You have got to select yourself and we don’t give games away, so I am not surprised he would look for opportunities.
“We felt the opportunities were going to mature at Richmond and put a lot of time and effort into him, and the fact North Melbourne were willing to offer him a really strong contract was probably vindication of that.”
Bachar Houli was nudged into retirement so Richmond can continue to play small and medium-sized players like Sydney Stack, Daniel Rioli, Mansell, Nick Vlastuin and Jayden Short.
Gale admits a soft spot for the recently recontracted Stack, whose last four games were excellent in a seven-game season ruined by a stint in a Perth jail over a Covid breach.
“I am proud of him. Not quite this time last year but close to it, he was in prison. So he’s fought his way back. He can play. He can really play. I reckon he’s only scratched the surface. His potential is very high. He is a good man, Sydney. He has had a bit of bad luck in his life but we love him and have great belief in him.”
Asked if Robbie Tarrant’s acquisition from North Melbourne indicates the Tigers are topping up, Gale says he is just a “really good player” who perfectly fills a list hole.
“David Astbury has been a wonderful player and a wonderful leader. He probably went a year earlier than expected and we just felt it was a like for like. He (Tarrant) has missed a bit of footy but he has a great record of durability, He is an elite player.”
Triple premiership-defender Astbury might be replaceable, but president Peggy O’Neal’s shoes will prove harder to fill in 12 months time.
She has only 12 months more to run on her history-making presidency, with the new RMIT Chancellor to step down from the Tiges board altogether by the end of 2022 under strict term limits.
Richmond’s board will provide a successor, with Plenary co-founder and former VRC vice-chairman John O’Rourke seen as a strong candidate across a 12-person board that includes Gale as an executive director.
“I don’t think there is any formal process. They chew the fat, just talk it through,” says Gale of finding a new president.
He says “it would be likely” the replacement comes from within the club for a compromise candidate who ended up being one of Richmond’s most
“She has been a very, very strong and successful president of the club. She is strong and inspiring in her humility and selflessness and strength, but one of her great strengths is inclusive in nature.”
O’Neal and Gale have overseen a club transformation that has turned Richmond into an AFL powerhouse, with hopes for a return to huge profits next year after Covid wiped $7 million from walk-up ticket sales alone in each of these past two years.
Gale admits trepidation at what curve-balls the pandemic is yet to throw at us, conceding members have given so much for almost no return.
“We have members who haven’t sat in a reserved seat in two years. So we just can’t assume it’s going to be the same going forward. We were lucky to get some crowds in but even then (early in 2021) people chose not to come. We were putting too many impediments in front of them getting to a game of footy.”
So why would that change next year, Gale is asked.
“Well, there is no better way to consume football live than the MCG. To get back to the MCG and being part of that energy and electricity is intoxicating. So we have just got to get everyone vaccinated and get our boosters and do the right thing. We need to lean into this (Covid) and get on with it.”
Richmond was the first club forced to quarantine its players last month when an AFLW player tested positive in a case picked up by new rapid testing. Gale said the show will simply go on as clubs deal with cases next year.
“We had a young woman turn up and waited in the car for 15 minutes with a rapid antigen test, she tested positive but there was no crossover (with men’s and women’s programs) and we tested the entire program. We have learnt the process works, but you can’t be too vigilant.
“I think we are going to (see a lot of it in 2022) and it will be just like managing a soft-tissue injury. The whole world can’t stop. The show has to go on. We just have to lean into it.”
HOW A SIMPLE RULE CHANGE DEFANGED TIGER TOM
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale says the AFL’s new stand rule will be judged as a failure that promoted uncontested “circle-work” and was a factor in Tom Lynch’s 35-goal season.
Gale told the Herald Sun the new rule was “unedifying” as defenders stood passively on the mark in what should be a contested, in-your-face game.
The AFL brought in its new rules, including the stand rule, after closely monitoring Richmond’s brilliant efforts to guard the corridor while on the mark in the club’s successful 2020 premiership defence.
But scoring went down from 80.7 points a game in 2019 to 79.7 points in 2021 (2020 involved shorter games) even if teams could move the ball from defensive 50 to inside 50 more smoothly.
Richmond also had its frenetic tackling game blunted as rivals chipped the ball around and denied the Tigers the chance to apply their trademark pressure.
“With the man on the mark rule, teams rather than defend proactively in the middle of the ground and up the ground, they just folded back,” 244-game Tigers veteran Gale said.
“So, as a result, scoring has gone down again. It’s harder to score as teams fall back.
“If the stated objective was to get the ball in motion, then the ball was in motion. But I saw a lot of games this year which were simply keepings off. If the stated objective was to score, well, it hasn’t worked.
“Teams want to control the ball because defences were flooding back. So the ball is in motion but it’s keepings off. Teams aren’t scoring.
“I just think the mere sight of players standing passively on the mark is unedifying. When you think of the nature of our game, it’s an active, on-your-toes, aggressive game, so I think it was unedifying. Teams fold back and don’t defend the ground. Melbourne conceded a score from 35 per cent of entries and it was the lowest of all time.”
Gale admits the league is unlikely to revert from its stand rule, with new football operations boss Brad Scott making clear he saw no need for intervention.
“It’s a personal view. If they want the ball in continuous motion, so be it, but I think we like scoring and there isn’t a correlation between that rule and high scores.”
Gale said Richmond’s form had contributed to Tom Lynch’s quieter season, but added the new rules didn’t help.
“As a team, we were very inconsistent. Very unbalanced between the defensive and offensive and there were a whole bunch of reasons behind that, and we have done a lot of analysis. But at the end of the day, I don’t think our forward line got a lot of good looks.
“It’s harder to score in general as teams fall back and with the way we performed as a team, but Tom can play and he will respond accordingly.”
Former AFL football boss Steve Hocking made clear he believed the changes had worked after a remarkable Grand Final that saw key momentum swings between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
“I look to the Grand Final and I think you have a look at 10 minutes to go in third quarter, the Dogs are 19 points up (and Melbourne won),” he said last month.
“If any of you needed to understand what my vision was for the game, that game captured it. It was really about the best players being able to demonstrate their high level of skills.”
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Originally published as AFL off-season: Richmond CEO Brendon Gale nearing new deal with the club
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