Richmond puts a Tiger in Bass Coast’s tourism tank

BASS Coast became ‘Tigerland’ for the week last week as the high-profile Richmond Football Club launched a player-driven publicity campaign that took images of this magnificent coastal area to a million supporters Australia wide.

You couldn’t buy that sort of exposure.

They rode bikes and staged training runs across the famous Kilcunda trestle bridge, cooled off in the pristine waters of Inverloch’s surf beach, where they also played beach cricket, beach volleyball and demonstrated their skills on stand-up paddle boards.

They trained at the Inverloch Recreation Reserve, and also on the superb surface at Wonthaggi, where they took time out to meet and greet hundreds of local school kids and fans, signing autographs, books and stopping for selfies during a regional training camp which Richmond FC Executive Director Brendan Gale described as one of the best-ever pre-season training events.

He said he couldn’t speak highly enough of the welcome the club had received, starting out with a Welcome to Boonwurrung Country and smoking ceremony, at the Inverloch RACV Resort by traditional owner Steven Ulula Parker from Millowl Dreaming and the local community and the diversity of training options on offer.

Speaking at Wonthaggi last Wednesday, on Day Three, he was effusive in his praise of the facilities at Wonthaggi and elsewhere.

“The oval is outstanding. As good as you’d find anywhere. You could putt on that surface,” said Gale.

“It (Bass Coast) is the ideal place to have a training camp. You’ve got the beach right here and a couple of fantastic ovals to train on. We’re just delighted to be here. It’s great, yeah.

“And terrific to see such a big crowd of supporters and all the kids. Aren’t they supposed to be in school today,” he said with a laugh.

At both Inverloch and Wonthaggi ovals, local schools allowed their students to come across and see the players train.

And they went at it hard, with the whole playing group of 40-plus players, including all of the stars and new recruits.

“Everyone has been very welcoming and it’s great to be able to get out here into the country and meet some of our regional fans,” he said.

New General Manager of the Wonthaggi FNC Brendan Knight was just as pleased, especially as Wonthaggi was hosting his own AFL club.

“Of course, I’m a bit biased but it’s great to be hosting one of the big Melbourne clubs; Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton or Essendon,” said Brendan.

“We heard that they were coming a couple of weeks ago and I’m not surprised such a big crowd has come out.

“The ground is probably as good as it can be right now, with that bit of rain we had last week and the weather perfect today.

“We’ve had some terrific feedback from the Richmond officials. They couldn’t be happier with the ground, the gym, and the other facilities.

"Of course, our facilities do need to be upgraded, especially for women’s football. These are things that we’ll be working on in the coming year,” he said.

Maybe the publicity given by Richmond will help.

Brendan Gale will certainly be pushing for it.

“I’d like to see more VFL games coming out here,” said Mr Gale.

It was the ultimate early Christmas present for Richmond Tigers fans in Bass Coast and South Gippsland, and didn’t they love it, young and old.

A group of students from the Bass Coast Specialist School enjoyed a nice moment with the players during the session. Premiership hero Nick Vlastuin and some of his teammates noticed the group with their bus, parked on the scoreboard side of the Wonthaggi oval and went across and chatted with them for 10 minutes, taking selfies and signing autographs.

On the ground it was full contact with Richmond super star Dustin Martin coming off a bit the worse for wear after a head clash during a match-simulation session.

‘Dusty’ was ushered from the ground by medical staff and made no further appearance on the day, until he was put through an exhaustive assessment at Inverloch the next day before rejoining the group.

Here are some other training notes:

• Up and coming defender Josh Gibcus was on limited duties as he comes back from a series of hamstring injuries last season but is expected to be a key part of Richmond’s transition to a new era under new coach Adem Yze.
• Daniel Rioli and Maurice  Rioli Junior were among the other stars who turned out on the day, with big Toby Nankervis, Ben Miller, Jacob Hopper, Noah Balter, Dion Prestia, Shai Bolton… they were all there.
• Big Nank, the club’s co-captain, was one of the main ones to interact with the kids on the sidelines.
• Tom Lynch looked to be on light duties as well as he returns from injury but took part in most drills.

The playing group were put through sessions of game play and group ball-handling sessions, stopping for regular drinks on what was sunny, occasionally cloudy day at Wonthaggi but with a nice breeze blowing across the ground.

At the end in Wonthaggi, there was a competitive goal-kicking drill, which appeared to be part of some sort of competition, between black tops and white tops, but like other visitors to Wonthaggi, the Tigers appeared to have difficulty kicking goals at the Bass Highway (western end) end of the ground.