Wreck It Ralph: Why Essendon, Richmond need to keep Andy McGrath and Liam Baker

Richmond loves Liam Baker. And the Tigers will believe Baker loves them enough to stay. But what if the lure of home is too strong? JON RALPH assesses the trade situation.

Liam Baker kicks a goal against Port Adelaide at the MCG during Round 2. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

Jake Stringer wasn’t at the American training camp that Andy McGrath helped organise as Essendon’s players finally decided they were tired of being the AFL’s most mediocre team.

He was getting his life in order back in Australia.

But as Stringer worked on his mental health and physical fitness, the spectre of those Dons players – who were working their butts off while on holiday – weighed heavily on those watching from afar.

If his teammates were so publicly sweating it out ahead of their official return to pre-season training, Stringer and co. were determined not to be left behind.

Andy McGrath at the player-organised Essendon training camp at the Exos facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. Picture: Essendon FC

On Saturday, as Essendon overhauled St Kilda, it was Stringer performing the heroics to get the Bombers over the line built on a pre-season he has rarely had before.

Essendon free agent McGrath is a glue guy, a player critical to the fabric of his football club.

As Essendon assesses his worth this year, how does the club’s list-management department factor in his off-field worth as a vice-captain and driver of cultural standards like that overseas training camp?

A day after Essendon’s win, Liam Baker was in everything for Richmond as the Tigers climbed off the canvas of a 0-3 start to rock premiership contender Sydney.

Talk about a glue guy.

Coach Adem Yze promised on Sunday night to give him the “world” if he re-signed, after this masthead last month revealed interest from Fremantle, West Coast and multiple Victorian teams.

Like McGrath before him, he will never win a Brownlow Medal, has never won a best-and-fairest and has never been in the All-Australian squad.

They don’t play in positions that draw the big bucks – McGrath as a half-back flank and small-forward stopper; Baker as a jack of all trades.

And yet with both players likely requiring over $800,000 a season to remain, how much do you reward leadership and loyalty and all the intangibles that are never seen on the field?

As Brisbane furiously denies any split in its ranks over its American adventures, the role of culture within a team’s ranks is an under-rated commodity.

You can never have too many Bakers or McGraths or Harris Andrews types. Andrews is adamant the Lions’ issues are not Nashville-related.

McGrath’s leadership is there for all to see – the way he talks up his club, sets standards and initiates trips like the American training camp.

Baker is different.

Cheeky, irreverent, rough around the edges.

Liam Baker kicks a goal against Port Adelaide at the MCG during Round 2. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

And yet what Richmond would say is he has the perfect blend of leadership for the modern age: He is never too caught up in his own worth, he is laid-back when he needs to be and yet with a rigid adherence to standards.

A perfect role model for the band of kids they are assembling.

As Richmond’s players wavered after that winless start to the year, imagine how Baker would have backed in Yze’s methods and game plan to the teammates who were unsure if they were in for a year of pain.

Thankfully, both McGrath and Baker have started the season in the kind of form that will see their existing clubs opening the purse strings.

Baker has kicked six goals in the past three games to go with 24 score involvements and 14 tackles. He finished second (2021), fourth (2022) and sixth (2023) in the past three Jack Dyer Medals.

Baker signed a $600,000-a-season deal in 2022 and would expect – based on the 30 per cent salary cap rise across that time – to be paid $800,000 a year going forward.

Richmond will believe he loves the joint, but would also put a massive trade price on his head if he did eventually return home citing homesickness, having bought a new house in Perth.

Fremantle has three first-round picks – their own, one linked to Collingwood and one linked to Port Adelaide.

Andrew McGrath had 30 touches on the weekend, but his value to the club is far more than he does on the field, writes Jon Ralph. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

But Richmond would look at last year’s Lachie Schultz trade as a guide – Collingwood’s future first-rounder and pick 34 – and suggest Baker is a superior player to Schultz.

Richmond will hope that Victorian clubs with huge cap space, such as North Melbourne, Hawthorn, St Kilda, will be zealously guarding their early picks in a superdraft.

If Jack Graham did eventually leave as a free agent, Richmond might hope to secure a second-round compensation pick for a player who has given eight years of service in two premiership sides.

The Tigers could use that pick to improve a draft hand that has two extra third-rounders and two extra fourth-rounders, ideally taking another four or five draftees within pick 30.

Still, there is no upside of losing Baker given his age (26) and leadership, so the Tigers will have to show him the money.

Former No.1 overall draft pick McGrath has been a model of consistency off half-back across three weeks with 33, 25 and 30 possessions, plus 621, 582 and 619 metres gained, and a stack of inside-50s.

He doesn’t have suitors like Baker, but the Dons would be wise to lock him away for five or six years on about the $800,000 mark like Darcy Parish and Mason Redman before him.

He won’t be winning the game off his own boot.

Yet the intangibles matter.

The glue guys are desperately needed in moments of crisis.

They better their clubs in ways not always obvious.

If Baker goes, it will be with Richmond understanding that it is time to go home to be closer to family.

But as Yze made clear, it will not be through underestimating has value to a team trying to rebuild on the run.

Originally published as Wreck It Ralph: Why Essendon, Richmond need to keep Andy McGrath and Liam Baker