The Richmond star will oversee a League in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009 that will feature some of the game’s biggest names.
But he soon found out that with limited cash to spend, he couldn’t go splashing all his money too early in the piece.
“I sort of picked three or four certain starters in each line and then after that I was just trying to fit it all under the salary cap,” he said.
Richardson said he found room for a few of his Tiger teammates in his Dream Team line-up, with one in particular leaping off his computer screen as the potential steal of this year’s competition.
“I’ve got Andrew Raines in my team,” Richardson said.
“He’s about $180,000 which is a bargain for a guy who came second in a Rising Star award a couple of years ago. But then he was injured all of last year.
“I thought he was very cheap and he’s had a good pre-season.”
Of the Richmond midfield Nathan Foley, still on the rise and vice-captain of the club this year, is among the cheapest at $332,400. At that price, Richardson found him too good to pass up.
“I thought Foles, for an elite midfielder to be around $330,000, he might have been a little bit under-priced, so I’ve put him in my team.”
Another teammate to squeeze into the line-up is young ruckman Angus Graham, however Richardson spent up in his ruck division and hopes it pays off come the home-and-away season.
He is banking on Graham and Sydney Swan Mike Pyke – whom he says he rewarded primarily for his name – on being handy back-ups rather than the main men.
“I’ve gone with two outstanding ruckmen, [Dean] Cox and [David] Hille,” he said.
“Then the other two ruckmen, they mightn’t get many games at this stage but I’m expecting and hoping those other two guys stay out on the ground because you only need to have two ruckmen scoring points.”
In attack, the budding coach has also gone for pure class but also hopes some clever spending pays off.
The likes of Lance Franklin and Ryan O’Keefe should provide plenty of 100-plus scores but the astute Tiger has also spotted a few things over the summer to raise an eyebrow.
“Simon Goodwin might play half back this year but he’s in the forward line [in Dream Team], so if he plays half back I can see him racking up plenty of possessions,” Richardson said.
“I thought Scott Lucas, if he’s over his knee, was pretty good value.
“The other one I thought, who didn’t play much last year but who can rack up plenty of the ball, is Ryan Houlihan at Carlton. So I’ve slotted him in as well.”
Young guns Jack Watts, Daniel Rich, Jack Ziebell and Stephen Hill are among his bargain basement picks.
Hill caught Richardson’s eye in a NAB Cup game at Subiaco.
“We played against them a couple of weeks ago and he looked good … [with my younger players] I’ve gone with the guys that I think will be playing straight away,” he said.
Richardson said Gary Ablett deserved first crack at captaining his team.
Dream Team watch – Andrew Raines is rated a $188,100 defender in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
