Richmond’s National Recruiting Manager, Rhy Gieschen, spoke to Richmond Media about the Tigers’ mid-season draftee, Kye Annand, if the Club thought about opening up another list spot in the Mid-Season Draft, the talent in the VFL program and more.

Gieschen on what Kye Annand brings...

“We're so excited to bring Kye in. He's a fantastic person, it's been great getting to know him and his family over the last little period. We've been tracking his footy throughout this year and to see him continue to grow and develop, and we did a bit of a deep dive on his vision, and to see him go from sort of a ruck-forward to moving into that key defender role, we're really excited to see how much he can keep developing. He's 200 centimetres, he's big, he's strong, he's tough, he's competitive, but he's got some real football IQ as well. His intercept game is really improving, and he's reliable as a defender as well. He's got a good personality. I think the fans will really be excited about what he can offer us.”

Gieschen on why Tigers drafted a defender…

“Obviously we've had some changes in the last month with Josh Gibcus unfortunately going down and Campbell Gray doing a hamstring, but anyone we take in these drafts is always about their long-term prospects at the Club. [Annand] does fill a bit of a need for us short-term. We think we've got some guys that can play those roles really well, Ben Miller and Luke Trainor stepped up and played on Nate Caddy [Essendon] on the weekend and we thought they did a fantastic job, but [Annand] just does solidify that position for us in the short-term. We think he's got some real long-term upside and prospects as well. He's still growing into his game and there's still some development left in him, so we are really excited to see what he can do full-time in the program.”

Gieschen on if Tigers thought about opening up more list spots for the mid-season draft…

“We looked at that and we had all sorts of scenarios and obviously what we're going through is not ideal from an injury point of view. We've got quite a few number of our AFL players coming back in the short to medium term. We only had the one long-term injury in the end, so we were happy to just take one pick, but as a recruiting team you plan to take more, worst case scenario. We're really excited to get some of our boys back. They've been working extremely hard in rehab.”

Gieschen on the AFL prospects in Richmond's VFL team…

“We looked at those guys really closely and, firstly, it's a credit to the whole VFL program, not only this year, but a number of years. A lot of that was set up by [Victorian Recruiting Manager] Oliver Grant, Steve Morris at the time, obviously [VFL Football Operations Manager and AFL Recruiting Officer] Alex Davey has come in, and Jack Madgen. Jake Batchelor did a fantastic job. We're really proud of what we've been able to achieve in that space, not only on the field, but I feel like the culture's really strong, and there's been some guys that we've brought in that continue to keep improving and developing. Some of those [VFL boys] we looked at really closely, and you know there's some hard luck stories in there and guys we'll definitely keep tracking. Sam Toner we think is a quality player, Mutaz El Nour just keeps knocking the door down and playing outstanding footy. Zaydyn Lockwood's really improving, Dan Lowther's come on leaps and bounds since coming to our Club, Olli Hotton's been a really solid contributor. You could name 10 or 15 guys that have really improved and keep playing really strong footy. We'll keep tracking them, but more importantly, they're quality Richmond people and we love watching them in our VFL program every week.”