Thanks for your time, Damien - let's start with the obvious. Did you bring anything across from the Hawthorn model?
Probably what I brought is the experience from Hawthorn - when myself and Alastair and the new coaching group got there it was in a very similar situation to where Richmond is now. So it's probably the experience of the whole process, of how they got from day dot to the end of 2009. So from that I bring a fair amount of knowledge about what sort of process is involved, realising the mistakes they made in some parts of their journey, and taking some leaps and bounds as well.

Do you enjoy the rebuilding concept, or is that a word you'd avoid?
I suppose you’d call it more of a transformation of the list. It is exciting to bring in 14 new players onto a list, and there's a group of players that obviously I hadn’t met prior to coming here, so from that point of view it's always exciting, and we are a young squad, and going forward I think we can build on that squad.

When you were at Hawthorn, what was the take on Richmond as a side?
Probably one of inconsistency. You were never quite sure what you were going to get. Offensively they could quite easily blow sides out of the water, but on the offset they could also be blown out of the water, so it was probably wondering which Richmond side you were going to get on a regular basis. There’s some massive upsides. I think offensively we can play, but defensively we have some work to do.

And that was shown, wasn’t it, when Richmond won and won convincingly in round 20, 2008, when you were on your way to a flag that year. They did a great job over the entire four quarters.
They did, and they obviously had Hawthorn’s measure that day, and they played very well. (Lance) Franklin kicked 2.9, which probably didn’t help the Hawks [laughs]. But a win’s a win.

Which Tigers players concerned you most from a match-up/danger point of view when you were at the Hawks?
Probably the one who retired - there was no genuine match-up for Richo [Matthew Richardson] and so he was always the one that you’d be doing a lot of ‘what-ifs’ about. But look, the quality of the Tigers’ midfield was always a concern - (Brett) Deledio, Chris Newman also. It was always a case of who’s going to curtail these guys and how can we best work off them.

How is the pre-season going? As expected, a bit tougher, a bit easier...
It’s going well, but if you asked every AFL coach at this time of the year they’d all say it’s going really well. No one’s going to say 'we’re going horribly'. We’re reasonably pleased with where we’re at, although we’ve got a long way to go. Whether it’s one month, six months, 12 months, we’re just hoping it clicks in at some stage, and I believe it will. It may take a little while, but we’re pleased with the way we’re going.

You’re training a bit all over the place at the moment in terms of location. How difficult is that compared to just lobbing at Waverley each time, which I guess you were pretty used to?
It is difficult, but we don’t make any excuses. We’ve got to solve that problem in the next 12 months hopefully, so we can actually train here at Punt Rd. We’ve got a fantastic new multicultural facility that’s being built, but in effect if we haven’t got a football ground, then the facility is not worth a grain of salt, so we really need to get that underway.

How different is actually running your own side compared to being an assistant?
It is different. As an assistant you are really concentrating on the football side of things, whereas with the head coaching job there’s football, there’s managerial, there’s administration - there’s a lot more bloody meetings, I suppose you’d say. But I love every minute of it, I just love football, so I’m really happy to be doing the job.

This may sound like a strange question, but have you watched the ‘Dean Bailey at Melbourne’ scenario with interest, given they were a bottom-of-the-ladder side when he took over?
Knowing Dean reasonably well I have watched with interest, and look, they’ve acquired some enormous talent and stockpiled some talent too - they’re going to be a very formidable side in the near future. Sides have given us a blueprint throughout the course of time, you look at St Kilda, Geelong, and I think Melbourne will be a side of the future and hopefully Richmond is somewhat the same.

It’s just a matter of developing and nurturing that young talent to get you where you need to go. Geelong, from memory, started their premiership journey around the early 2000s, when they got Gary Ablett, Cameron Ling, Jimmy Bartel and Joel Corey to the team, and that’s what we’re hoping we’ve done in this draft. I think we started that process in 2004, and hopefully we can bolster that talent with the crop we just brought in.

Were you watching the situation as it unfolded at the Tiges through 2009 and thinking you might get the opportunity to put your hand up for a job?
In all honesty, not really. You do but you don’t. You’re so busy doing what you do at Hawthorn to worry about that sort of stuff. At the end of the day, you just hope that you do your work well enough that you get asked for an interview. So you sort of know what’s going on in the background, but there’s no point worrying about it.

The supporters at Richmond have generally been pretty patient, although at times they’ve been seriously impatient. How patient do they have to be at the moment, given what we were just talking about with Dean and Melbourne?
I don’t know if it’s about being patient, I suppose it’s just believing that we’re going about it the right way. We’re interested in developing our list and our facilities and our culture for our 11th premiership assault. So anything going forward from here will be based on that - we’re not interested in shortcuts, we’re not interested in quick-fixes. If it takes one year, three years, five years, 10 years. What we know is that it eventually will happen if we keep going with the plan that we’ve got here.

The Tigers have had a low profile since you got here - you’ve been almost invisible. Is this a new media philosophy?
No, it’s more so that when you bring 14 young players, development’s crucial. Anything that takes me away from the playing group is, in effect, detrimental to their development. We’d prefer to spend a hell of a lot more time on-ground teaching them how to play the game, the way we’re going to play the game - we’ve got a lot of structures and game play stuff we need to get through, and at this stage of where our club’s at, they need to be coached, and coached heavily. So that’s my No.1 mandate at this stage, and anything that takes away from that is robbing the players.

You talked about the excitement of bringing in 14 new players. What do you make of your list overall?
Overall I think all coaches are reasonably happy with their list - there’s always some holes, but I’m really happy with the depth of our players, but also the positional requirements that we’ve got. We addressed some crucial needs last November in the national and rookie drafts, so I’m pretty happy with where we’re at. Now it’s our job as coaches to develop that talent - we think our recruiters have done a terrific job in getting the talent in, and we felt that we only missed out on one player that we had a target for, and that guy got picked up pretty early by the Bulldogs [South Australian running defender Christian Howard was a surprise first-round pick when the Dogs grabbed him at 15].

Chris Newman is the skipper - what qualities do you see in Chris, and do you see him being a long-term leader here?
I think so - it’s a funny word, but he’s just a great character. He oozes class, he’s a leader on and off the field. There’s a lot that goes into being captain - people think it’s all about on-field, and he’s very good at doing that, but off-field he’s a star as well, which is almost as important.

Has anyone surprised you with their attitude/application, on or off the track?
Surprisingly - the group in general. They’re a very coachable group and are willing to learn, and they’re also a very fit group - I was surprised by the amount of running ability that we have actually got here. What we have got is we’ve got some terrific athletes - we just need to improve a couple of areas of our game, like our decision-making and our ability to defensively stop sides.

Hard at it seemed to be a key phrase at the press conference where you were announced as coach. What do you mean when you say that - is it mental? Is it physical? How is that translating into training?
All we’re after at this footy club is that when it’s your turn to go, you go, no questions asked. I think that instils great confidence in your teammates knowing that if a ball’s there to be won, we’re going to win it. You look at last year’s grand final with St Kilda and Geelong, it was just a hard-ball slog-fest.

You’d have loved that, wouldn’t you?
I think the football world loved it. It was a great grand final, and over the course of time they can change all the rules they want, but that’s the one thing that will win you ball games.

Did it surprise you when Richo came to see you to pull the pin?
It did, and it didn’t. It didn’t at the time, because I reckon we could see it coming. There was a week where he withdrew himself a little bit from the group and there was a little bit of concern about the way he was going and he wasn’t quite feeling right. Over the course of the week it became more apparent that we thought he would retire. It was disappointing, not only for Richmond supporters but for the AFL in general. He’s a marquee player who comes around once in a lifetime. From a selfish point of view, I would have loved to have coached the great man as well at some stage.

How much planning had gone into having him in the side and how much adjustment will you have to make now he’s gone?
It was funny, because I remember in my presentation to the board that I had Richo on the wing, because I felt for opposition sides it presented them with a lot of problems but also, for our side, we needed to develop a new forward structure. It’s going to be based around guys like Jack Riewoldt, Mitch Morton, Robbie Nahas, so from that point of view it didn’t change the forward-line structure that we had implemented, but to take out one of your top five players is a big loss.

How is Trent Cotchin's body? Where’s he at?
He’s going well. We’ve tailored his program to allow him to train twice a week. We hope Trent’s going to be a 10 to 12-year player at this club, so whatever we can do to makes sure he gets through those 10 to 12 years, we’re going to do. There’s no point us pushing him now if it’s going to hurt his career come year eight or nine. He’s just got to wait for his body, his tendons and all that, to grow to the same stage so we can get him up and going at his best. We’re going to be very cautious with Trent.

Has Nathan Foley's injury been a bit of a setback?
He’s going okay - obviously he’s had some issues with his achilles, but we feel we’re over the worst of that. He had a bit of irritation in the ankle as a result of the operation that we’ve now cleared up. The achilles tendon itself is outstanding, so in 10 to 12 days he’ll be running again.

Shane Tuck - where’s he at?
He’s going well. I had a conversation with Tucky this morning about where he’s at, and he’s going okay. He’s got some deficiencies, like the rest of our playing list, and he’s working on those deficiencies to get himself going for season 2010.

Troy Simmonds - he’s one of the few older guys still around. Is that because he can play in a variety of positions?
No. Ruck is an important position, but it’s also one where we’ve got a number of younger developing rucks, and it’s too early to throw those guys into the rigours of AFL, because it’s a really hard position to play. Experience counts for a lot, to the point where (new assistant coach) Brendon Lade was going to be asked to play there at one stage to help us out. But Troy provides a wealth of experience, and also a mature, tough body that can carry the loads of AFL. He’s had a great pre-season - he had a slight hiccup with an impact injury, but he’s well on track.

Is that something that’s a bit of carry-over from Hawthorn, when you lost all your ruckmen last year?
I think so, but I think it’s common in most clubs. St Kilda and Sydney have shown that they hold onto their ruckmen longer. If you go back into the history of the game, there’s not many No.1 draft pick ruckmen who have played at the same club over a long period of time, because they take a long time to develop. And as harsh as it is, there’s no guarantee that the guy you take in round one is going to be any better than the guy you take in the fifth round of the draft.

Where’s Graham Polak at? I know he was very worried when he was delisted - as you would be - and now he’s back, on the rookie list.
He’s going really well - he’s had an outstanding pre-season. He’s been one of the standouts for mine - he’s like a bonus player for us. From our point of view - and Polly’s - he probably didn’t quite know how he was going to respond after the accident. But he’s coming on really well - he’s been playing up forward for us, and has been taking some really good marks. He’s been very impressive.

Last year he said he was really struggling with his marking.
Well he is not now, he’s confident, which is good.

Giving the kids the higher numbers - where did that come from?
I was just brought up with it - I like the respect for a number, I like the history involved. I don’t enjoy a player coming in straight to a low number. Wearing the jumper alone is a great honour, but I want the players to realise that to get a low number you’ve got to be a bloody good player.

Was everyone at the club with you?
Oh look, probably a few. I’m trying to get Axel (Foley) to move out of that bloody No.41, but he won’t do it, but he’s probably entrenched in it now.

It would appear stocks are a bit thin up forward. We’ve just talked about Polly playing down there, and you said Troy’s most likely going to be your No.1 ruck. Is there anyone else you’re looking at swinging down there? I heard you the other day saying Jayden Post is most likely going to play back.
There are a few guys we’re going to rotate through there. The great things about forwards now and the AFL in general, is that you can develop systems that make players become better players, and that’s what we’re looking to do here. I don’t want to have one guy kicking 80 goals and the next one 20, I’d rather have three guys kicking 50 goals, so that way we’ve got three important keys. We drafted young (Ben) Griffiths and (David) Astbury, who we think are going to be very good players for this footy club, we’ve tried Dean Polo down there this year with great success, Mitch Morton is down there as well, so what we’re after is a greater spread of goalkickers from a system, not so much a focal point.

On the other hand, the midfield - which we mentioned earlier - is looking very healthy for the future. If you were building a list from scratch, is that the way you’d like to approach it - starting from the midfield and building around that?
If we were starting from the ground up, probably not. The way I see it, you’ve got to develop your keys first. If you look at the drafting system, it’s a lot harder to get a key position guy. Obviously we took Dustin (Martin) at pick three, but that’s why we targeted Astbury and Griffiths. For where we’re at, we need those key position guys, and we tried to draft accordingly. In saying that, the midfielders, you can get some really high-quality ones up the top, but the second and third rounds, what the difference is, is hard to say.

Player skills - where do you stand here? Can you fix a player’s skills once they get to AFL level?
You can only fix them so far. I rarely see kids kicking on the street, which is sad, but that’s the way it is. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids just don’t have the hours up to get their skills to the required level, so it’s really hard to improve that kicking. So from our point of view, we’ll only draft kids that can kick to a high level. Decision-making, on the other hand, is something you can improve dramatically if you actually put the players in the required position enough.