VFL FOOTBALL will return to Punt Road Oval for the first time since 1964 with Richmond's standalone reserves team to play its home games at the ground from next season.
The Tigers launched their VFL team at the ME Bank Centre on Friday evening, announcing the plan to play games at their home base in 2014 after ending a 13-year alignment with Coburg.
Chief executive Brendon Gale said he was proud to announce the return of football to Punt Road Oval, where the Tigers played until their move to the MCG in 1964.
He said the club recognised a long time ago that a standalone team would be critical to fast-track the development of its young players.
"This decision was based on strategy and we felt it wasn't good enough to simply expect our coaches to develop our players as quickly as possible," Gale said.
"We needed to give them an environment where they could coach effectively and develop players to their full potential.
"That was getting control of our talent pathway and ultimately getting control of our reserves.
"By not doing so we were effectively outsourcing the development of our people and our players, who are perhaps our greatest asset."
Richmond unveiled its VFL playing list for next season, with delisted Geelong rookie Ryan Bathie and former AFL players Ed Barlow and Ross Young among the 21 'top-up' players.
Barlow played 34 games for the Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs, while Young, who will captain the VFL team, played six games for Carlton before moving to the WAFL where he won the 2009 Sandover Medal with Perth.
Pat Contin, Tim Clarke (coach) and Ross Young model Richmond's VFL jumper. Picture: AFL Media
The Tigers' standalone team was identified as a goal in its '3-0-75' plan four years ago, which aimed for three finals appearances, no debt and 75,000 members within five years.
Gale said the support of the Fighting Tiger Fund and the club's significantly improved business performance had helped bring forward the VFL plan.
"We were able to achieve that goal thanks to the wonderful contributions of our FTF contributors," he said.
"Importantly, our improved business performance has also enabled us to commit to important football decisions such as this."
Coach Damien Hardwick said the major benefit of the standalone team would be the ability to "develop and control the destiny of our players".
"The big one is the fact we can replicate our senior coaching staff with our development coaching staff," he said.
"We've got to get these players up to speed relatively quickly.
"We're expecting players to come in and make an impact at AFL level, so we want to implement the same systems from an AFL perspective at a VFL level.
"As hard as we did try with the Coburg affiliation, it was never going to work. We just didn't have enough resources to get that result."
