Board spill call for AFL club Richmond

Richmond’s last premiership-winning captain Bruce Monteath and Bryan Wood are part of a move to force a board spill at the AFL club.

The group, led by prominent cardiologist Martin Hiscock, announced their plans for a spill of the entire board on Monday, with the two former players to be installed as football directors.

“The Richmond Football Club sits at a 35-year crossroad; it either continues down the same path as the most unsuccessful club in the competition or it takes a different road to competing in and winning premierships,” Hiscock said.

“We have to have football success so something has to change.”

Monteath was captain of Richmond’s 1980 premiership side and played 118 games for the club, while Wood played 209 games between 1972 and 1982.

The Tigers missed the finals for the first time since 2012 this season, finishing 13th after winning eight games.

Richmond’s dismal 2016 ended with a 113-point defeat to the minor premiers, the Sydney Swans.

Coach Damien Hardwick is signed until the end of 2018, but five assistant coaches have been axed.

Tigers club legend Kevin Bartlett said he wasn’t surprised by the board challenge.

“When the club falls away as it did at the end of the season, and falling well below expectations, fans don’t like to see their side not putting in, being non-competitive, looking disinterested and appearing not to care,” he told SEN.

“That sort of attitude and perception agitates people, and today is an example of that.”

Bartlett said he also believed the proposed upheaval was not about the club’s financial position, but rather the coaching and on-field situation.

“It’s not that the club hasn’t been run well financially – I think that’s been acknowledged by everyone in the game,” he said.

“This is what happens when you go along to games and you see a side kick three goals for an entire game, that is supposed to be a top-four side.

“If you continue to play a style of football that people don’t understand, or it appears the players don’t understand, or it appears they don’t care and aren’t playing for each other, people get agitated.”

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