In the third of a Bingle Recruitment Zone special series focusing on 20 highlightsfrom Richmond’s trade/draft history, during the off-season period, we examineWayne Campbell’s playing path to success.
Just as Brendon Gale added considerable respectability to Richmond’s overall performance at the 1987 National Draft table, after its (and the competition’s) No. 1 pick Richard Lounder floundered, Wayne Campbell, ultimately, turned the 1989 Draft into a win for the Tigers.
It hadn’t looked like being that way, when another No. 1 Richmond (and competition) selection, Anthony Banik, bowed out of league football at the end of the 1994 season, following an injury/illness-interrupted 49-game career over five years.
Although the strongly-built Banik, recruited from Gippsland club Won Wron Woodside, didn’t live up to the high expectation that comes with the No. 1 draft pick mantle, Wayne Campbell, taken by the Tigers with their fifth selection (No. 29 overall ), clearly compensated.
Richmond plucked Campbell from Bendigo league club Golden Square, which, only a couple of years earlier, had been in the heart of Carlton’s country recruiting zone.
The Tigers snapped up the talented, young midfielder in the ‘89 National Draft, behind Banik, Allister Scott, Nathan Bower and Robert Wren.
Campbell made his senior league debut in Round 5 of the 1991 season, against Fitzroy at Princes Park, as an 18-year-old, under the coaching guidance of Club great Kevin Bartlett.
He was impressive first-up, too, wearing the No. 46 Yellow and Black guernsey, picking up 20 possessions, as the Tigers recorded a four-goal win.
Campbell put together a further 11 games in a solid debut season that year, averaging a respectable 17.4 disposals per match.
Then, in 1992, with triple Hawthorn premiership coach Allan Jeans having taken the coaching reins at Richmond, the young Tiger’s league career took off . . .
Given a permanent role in the midfield, Campbell carved a niche for himself as a ‘ball-magnet’, with a first-class, decision-making capacity.
He averaged 26.4 disposals throughout his second season of league football in 1992, with one performance, in particular, highlighting his quality. It came against Richmond’s arch-rival Carlton in a Round 15 clash at Waverley Park . . .
The second-year Tiger was given the daunting task that day of running with the Blues’ superstar midfielder Craig Bradley.
He rose to the challenge superbly, not only restricting Bradley to 22 disposals, but racking up what was to be an equal career-high 41 himself, including four goals, with the last of those being the one that clinched a major Tiger upset win by three points. Not surprisingly, he received his first Brownlow votes that day – three for being best afield.
From there, the prolific possession-winning midfielder went from strength to strength at the game’s highest level.
Although sustained team success eluded him, Campbell achieved a stack of individual honors throughout what was to be a long, distinguished league playing career, including four Jack Dyer Medals (1995, 1997, 1999 and 2002) and the Club’s captaincy, from 2001-04.
The 297 games he played were the most by any of the 116 selections in the 1989 National Draft, ahead of Brisbane’s Shaun Hart (273), and West Coast trio Peter Matera (253), Dean Kemp (243) and Ashley McIntosh (242).
Interestingly, the other 11 Richmond draftees that year managed a total of just 143 games between them.
