Richmond recruiting manager Matthew Clarke insists Josh Gibcus was the “best player available” when it came to the club’s first selection in the draft.
The Tigers took the key defender with pick 9 despite some draft experts predicting they may take a quality midfielder with their premium pick.
The likes of Neil Erasmus, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Josh Sinn and Ben Hobbs were all taken in the picks after the Tigers took Gibcus, so how did Clarke and his recruiting team land on the backman?
Did they target him to fill a specific need, or was he simply the best player available?
“We put our ranks in order towards the end of the season when we got all the data together and it just came out that Josh we rated the best player available,” Clarke said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“It just happened that he’d be a key position player who we think has got some flexibility. He’s obviously played a lot of footy down back in recent years, but he’s played some footy before that as a forward. We think he’s got flexibility to play at both ends of the ground.
“It just turned out that way that he was our highest ranked and we were happy to select him.”
The arrival of Gibcus adds depth to the Richmond defence which already consists of reigning Jack Dyer Medallist Dylan Grimes, the promising Noah Balta and recently acquired veteran Robbie Tarrant, among others.
With 22-year-old Balta returning from a syndesmosis injury, and Gibcus waiting in the wings, will it move the 44-gamer to a different position?
“He’s still an integral part of our back six,” Clarke said of Balta.
“With Robbie Tarrant coming in with Dave Astbury’s retirement, I think that will help both Noah and Dylan.
“Noah’s got the flexibility, as we’ve seen in games where he’s played as a forward, as a back, in the ruck.
“He’s still very young at 22 years of age, we’re only scratching the surface with Noah. We’ll see how his pre-season goes and we’ll see what the coaches want to do with him.”
It was a busy draft night for the Tigers who also selected rebounding defender Tom Brown with pick 17, midfielder Tyler Sonsie with pick 28, medium defender Samuel Banks with pick 29 and small forward Judson Clarke with pick 30.
Clarke explained the mindset of Richmond’s recruiters after they landed Gibcus inside the top 10, saying it was versatility and flexibility they were seeking.
“Once we got into our picks in the 20s there was a bit of flexibility in terms of type, the flexibility to play roles in our side, so we went for a bit of a combination there,” he added.
“We still ranked all of those boys really highly on talent, so I don’t think there was a great difference between any other guy in other position in terms of our talent rating.”
Clarke continued: “We’re pleased that we were able to add a good range of types to our list.
“We filled some needs in terms of some young, developing depth particularly in the key position with Josh early.
“We added some really good running power with Brown, Banks and Clarke and we think Tyler has got some really good scope as a midfielder.
“We were pleased with it. It’s up to the boys now to put the head down and do the work and we think we provide the right environment and platform to do that.”
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