AFL 2020: The 9 players who debuted for Richmond in 2000
They’re an unstoppable force now, but the Richmond of 20 years ago was stuck in a mire of poor trades and bad draft decisions. In today’s throwback we look at the Tigers debuts of 2000.
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Let’s be honest here – anyone who supported Richmond through the early 2000s deserves to see the success the club is having today.
Punt Road was a mess, as highlighted by the fact that none of the nine players who pulled the yellow and black on for the first time in 2000 played more than 100 games for the Tigers.
While a team like Geelong was putting together its nucleus for the dominant years to come, Richmond was setting itself up for failure – at least until the drought-breaker in 2017.
So in this news cycle of COVID-19 and the doom and gloom of footy not being around, let’s take a stroll back through time to the dark old days of Richmond, where we can use it as a lesson that, yes – things will get better eventually.
LEON CAMERON
Debuted Round 1 (84 games, 40 goals)
THE South Warrnambool warrior had already played a decade of footy at Footscray before Richmond came knocking in the 1999 post-season.
Keen to offload veterans in favour of youth, the Bulldogs let the smooth-moving midfielder go for picks 37 (Mitch Hahn) and 66 (Ryan Hargrave) in a trade that the Doggies probably won given the longevity of that pair..
But that’s not to say Cameron was less than serviceable in his four seasons at Punt Road, with his work off halfback in 2001 one of the main reasons the Tigers powered into the finals.
In his first match in yellow and black he notched 17 touches against the Demons in a perfect start to the 2000 season, but his finest moment arguaby came in Round 8, 2001, when he collected 22 disposals and kicked four goals in an incredible individual effort that wasn’t enough to get the team over the Crows.
Cameron called it quits in 2003 after 84 games for the Tigers and 256 games all up, and still provides Richmond fans with immense joy in his role as Giants head coach.
CLINTON KING
Debuted Round 1 (58 games, 10 goals)
YOU’D think that a trade involving two established players and two high draft picks would illicit some sort of big win either way for the clubs involved.
But if you look up the Clinton King trade of 1999 in the AFL dictionary, you’ll find it filed under ‘M’ for ‘meh’.
The Seattle Grunge looking midfielder was sent to Richmond with pick No.3 under his arm, while the Tigers packed the No.7 pick in ruckman Steven McKee’s suitcase and sent him up the road to Victoria Park.
Those picks were respectively used on Aaron Fiora and Danny Roach, with Fiora clearly becoming the more serviceable player despite being remembered by most as a wasted high pick.
For what it’s worth, King started slow in his Tigers debut with 11 disposals against the Demons, but was a crucial cog in a winning streak between Rounds 8 and 12 – averaging 20+ disposals – before breaking his leg against the Crows in a Round 13 loss.
He returned for Round 1 in 2001 – then missed 10 more games with another leg injury – and then became one the club’s best in their run to finals.
He would only last another two seasons after that before injury claimed his career at the end of 2003.
King went on to play some footy in South Australia and co-coached Keysborough in Victoria, but he’s fallen off the radar a bit since.
EZRA POYAS
Debuted Round 3 (9 games, 6 goals)
FOR all intents and purposes, Ezra Poyas should have been an AFL star.
Captain of Vic Metro in both the U16s and U18s – and selected in the All-Australian team – he came to Richmond with pick No.22 in the 1999 draft and was selected to debut against the then mono-named Kangaroos.
It was a slow start.
One touch in a loss to the Shinboners, then a second chance the week after against the Dockers, where he recorded the same stat line in another loss.
Dropped to the magoos for a couple of weeks, he returned in Round 8 in a win against Geelong with a then career-high five disposals, before recording donuts the week after against West Coast.
He put up another two quiet games in 2001 – while winning the league best and fairest in the VFL – before exploding out of the blocks in early 2002, with 16 touches and two goals against the Demons in Round 3, and 15 touches and three goals against the Dockers in Round 4.
Heading into Round 5 against the Hawks it looked like the Tigers would finally start to see some return on investment, but a devastating shoulder injury knocked Poyas out of the game, and knocked his AFL career for six.
Poyas would go on to star in the VFL and was given another shot on an AFL list with Melbourne, but never managed to make it onto the big time park again.
Poyas is now ridiculously ripped as the owner and head coach of Balaclava Crossfit.
ANDREW MILLS
Debuted Round 4 (14 games, 5 goals)
THE No.52 pick in the 1999 draft, Andrew Mills would be one of few Tigers in the 2000s who had a winning record to his name.
Of the 14 matches he played, nine were victories, not including his debut match against the Dockers in Round 4.
And it was a solid sort of debut as well.
Claiming 14 disposals and kicking a goal, it was the best match Mills would play in his four seasons at the Tigers, never going into double digit touches again and never kicking more than one goal in a game.
Delisted at the end of 2003, Mills would go on to play for Sandringham in the VFL and East Perth in the WAFL, and is now a business development manager for electronic advertising company Mandoe in Brisbane.
AARON FIORA
Debuted Round 7 (78 games, 25 goals)
IT’S physically impossible for non-Tigers fans to mention Aaron Fiora without also uttering Matthew Pavlich in the same sentence.
Because while Fiora would go on to play a total of 140 games across nine seasons and two teams as the No.3 draft pick, No.4 draft pick Matthew Pavlich would go on to be ... well, Matthew Pavlich.
It was an up and down road for the speedy wingman from Naracoorte, with glimpses of brilliance in his 78 matches for Richmond often eclipsed by a perceived lack of application and the idea that things would come good eventually.
“I thought when I got drafted first round, ‘I’m going to play 10 years, no worries’,” Fiora said after being delisted by St Kilda at the end of 2008.
“If you talked to my teammates they’d probably say it was a mental thing. When I was going well, I couldn’t keep it going and when I was going poor, I was really poor. I was never in between.
“One thing I never did was talk to the good players. I never went to ‘Richo’ (Matthew Richardson), or Wayne (Campbell), or Paul Broderick or Matthew Knights or Robert Harvey to see what they used to do when they were in a bit of a lull.
“Maybe (I was) a little bit pig-headed as well because I was a top draft pick and sometimes when you’re young, without saying it, you think, ‘I don’t have to, I’ll be right’.”
Fiora also said the Pavlich comparisons did weigh him down at times.
“I’d be lying to say I didn’t think about it a lot for a long time,” he said.
“I suppose supporters soon saw how big Pav was and that he was ready-made, and I was a skinny little kid who weighed about 67kg.
“Sometimes I’d get a bit down and think, ‘Maybe I’m not good enough, yeah, Richmond probably did make a mistake’.”
The 38-year-old now works as a carpenter in Melbourne.
ROYCE VARDY
Debuted Round 9 (34 games, 3 goals)
THE pride of Devon-Welshpool-Wron Wron-Woodside Football Club – yes it is a real club – Vardy is probably best remembered as being an early case study of players almost completely screwing up major sponsorship deals.
A medium-sized key position player that could go forward or back, the No.21 pick in the 2000 rookie draft came into the team for his first game against the Eagles in Round 9, impressing with 13 touches and keeping his place in the side for the rest of the season.
His sophomore season was mixed, with injury delaying his start to the year as he only managed to notch another nine games to his name.
But it was the off-season of 2001 that Vardy – rightly or wrongly – is most remembered for.
Caught drink-driving over the Christmas period and blowing 0.14, Richmond’s major sponsor at the time – the Transport Accident Commission – threatened to pull out of its deal unless something was done.
An emotional press conference, three months of community work, and a month away from the club later, the TAC was appeased, while footy columnists all over criticised the TAC’s threat as sponsors having too much power.
In reality, it was just the beginning of club v sponsorship battles of the next two decades.
For his part, Vardy – second cousin of West Coast premiership player Nathan – returned after his club enforced ban in 2002 but never quite captured the form of his debut year, playing just 12 more games before being delisted at the end of 2003.
Vardy now lives in Geelong with his wife and kids.
JAMES WHITE
Debuted Round 12 (4 games, 1 goal)
MIDFIELDER James White was Richmond’s top pick in the 1998 National Draft.
That’s enough to hang your hat on as a footballer if you ignore the fact that pick came at No.40.
Unable to break into the the seniors in his first year on the list, White cracked the ones in Round 12 of 2000, picking up six touches in a win over the soon to be dominant Brisbane Lions.
The following week, White showed glimpses of his promise with 13 disposals and one goal, two behinds, in a loss to Adelaide, before two underwhelming games saw him relegated back to the reserves for good, with his delisting coming at the end of 2000.
As for what he’s up to now, he’s a hard man to find – feel free to tag every James White you know on the the social media post for this story until we find him.
BEN HAYNES
Debuted Round 19 (5 games, 0 goals)
THE fifth player selected in the 2000 rookie draft, Ben Haynes is probably remembered more for his 21 games for Essendon than his five Tigers appearances.
Debuting in Round 19 against the Dockers, he managed three disposals on the way to a win, then had the exact same stats line against the Saints the week later, and again against the Lions the next season, and again against the Eagles the week after that.
Only a two touch game against the Crows ruined his perfect touch-trifecta record. Shattering.
Delisted at the end of 2001, Haynes headed over to Windy Hill for three seasons before again facing the dreaded chop at the end of 2005.
Joining West Adelaide for a season, Haynes made his name as a country footy legend at Silvan in the Yarra Valley, booting 115 goals in the club’s 2007 premiership year, before taking over as coach in 2008 to lead his team to back-to-back flags.
Haynes continues to coach footy and works as the general manager Perftech Perforated Metals in Thomastown.
TY ZANTUCK
Debuted Round 20 (68 games, 20 goals)
THE son of 149-gamer Shane Zantuck, swingman Ty joined the Tigers after being taken with one of the final picks in the 1999 National Draft.
Debuting in Round 20 against the Saints, it was a slow start for the Essendon Grammar graduate, picking up just 13 touches across three games for one goal.
Building on his first season, Zantuck added another seven games in 2001, before becoming a regular in the Richmond starting 22 in 2002 as an undersized target that could play back or float forward.
A bag of five goals against the Power in 2003 and four against Collingwood in 2004 showed Zantuck had promise as a spearhead, but the Tigers reportedly grew tired of alleged off-field anctics, and cut him from the list after 68 matches.
Landing at Kevin Sheedy’s Windy Hill in 2005, Zantuck again looked promising in his nine matches in the red and black, but again it was an alleged off-field incident that led to him falling out of the master coach’s good books, finding himself on the scrapheap by the end of the season.
Since retiring, Zantuck has been fighting for damages from the Richmond Football Club, claiming years of painkilling injections administered by club doctors have ruined his life.
Zantuck also runs a cleaning business for corporate offices.
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