Nathan Foley

Regular Season

Round 21 - Richmond 15.15.105 - Fremantle 15.8.98

Brett Deledio - There is an excellent article on Deledio written by Caroline Wilson on the Fairfax site. It's included here for your enjoyment.

Deledio thrives on tough love
Caroline Wilson | August 23, 2008

IT IS almost four years since Brett Deledio heard the Richmond Football Club call his name. He never saw being the No. 1 draft choice as a poisoned chalice and remains quite confused by the fact that anyone else would.

And he finds comparisons with those players who closely followed him that year as odious.

In fact during more than an hour with the 21-year-old while overlooking the Punt Road Oval this week, it is his memory of that national draft day that moves him more than any other.

"Even though I knew the night before, having my name read out was good," said Deledio, the oldest of three from Kyabram. "My Mum hugged me and it was quite . . . quite touching in a way.

"I looked over and caught my Dad's eye and I think I saw a couple of tears. I was glad I had made them proud."

Although he would have liked to have gone to Carlton, his father Wayne's old club, Deledio was more than happy with Richmond and spoke over the telephone on the eve of the draft with his friend Jarryd Roughead, whom he thought would be going to Punt Road with him. "I just knew I didn't want to go to Hawthorn because they were doing the Kokoda and I wasn't sure I was up to that," said Deledio. "We were both pretty relieved we would be avoiding that, but for 'Roughy' it didn't quite work out that way."

While he is on the subject of that draft and where he sits in it, Deledio is keen to straighten out what he claims is a misconception regarding him and The Age and columnist Robert Walls. In an opinion piece at the end of the Tigers' dismal 2007, Walls took a swipe at the lack of progress of Richmond's five top 20 draft picks in 2004 - singling out Deledio (pick No. 1) and the much-maligned Richard Tambling (No. 4), and comparing them with Roughead (No. 2), Ryan Griffen (No. 3) and Lance Franklin (No. 5).

Deledio, whose confidence in his own ability is not necessarily matched by an exuberant personality (he is quieter than you would expect), said he never banned The Age, but he did refer at one stage to "my ban on Wallsy".

"I think it had a bigger effect because I think his father and my grandfather knew each other from country footy and my dad knew him at Carlton. It wasn't so much the criticism - he said I had to learn to deal with taggers and that was fair enough - but the comparisons.

"I love nothing more than to see Griffo and Roughy and big Buddy and all those guys in our draft do well. There was a lot of depth there and there was a bit of the Juddy (Chris Judd) and Luke Ball situation where I'm sure it's tough being compared with someone like Juddy when the other guy probably just admires him, too."

Deledio agreed that more pressure had probably been placed on Tambling than him. "Because of Buddy, it was - and I do think it's unfair. I think they should all be celebrated for the players they are."

At any rate Deledio seems happy to talk now, as he nears the end of his fourth, and clearly best, AFL season. The only subject he asked to avoid was his hair (at present his natural colour).

Deledio was only 17 when he made his debut for Richmond. He won the Rising Star award in 2005 and today will play his 85th game - a crucial one for the Tigers, against Fremantle at the MCG.

It is widely acknowledged that Deledio has come of age this year and, with Matthew Richardson, is joint favourite to take out the club's best and fairest.

In truth, Walls' harshest criticism was reserved not for the players but the Richmond recruiters who chose midfielders over key-position players.

Some Richmond coaches will tell you that if the Rising Star flattered Deledio, winning the Jack Dyer Medal would not. There is no doubt now that the No. 1 pick has turned around the deficiencies that frustrated coach Terry Wallace last season.

Deledio is as honest about his faults as he is about his prodigious talent. "I rarely used to tackle," he said. "I probably thought that I was in the best position to get to the footy and do something with it but now I understand I had to improve there.

"Kane Johnson has been the biggest influence on me at the club. He never lets up on me, he's been really good at making sure I have a level head and he doesn't let me get ahead of myself. He also wants me to make the best of myself.

"Nathan Foley is almost the opposite of that. He's obviously got talent but he has always got the absolute best out of himself. "Kane's got a happy knack of throwing in a little dagger here and there; he always keeps me on my toes, I guess, because he could see how much ability I had.

"He's always got a couple of things he tells me I could have improved on after a game. He's not big on compliments but that's not what he's there for."

For a player who dislikes criticism and occasionally reacts badly to being challenged, the paradox of Deledio is that he seems to have latched on to those who do just that.

Johnson's brand of tough love was so intense in Deledio's first couple of seasons that there were concerns at the club that the captain might have pushed him too hard. This concern was put aside eight months ago when Deledio returned after the Christmas break knowing he had to complete a lap of the Tan in 13 minutes 20 seconds — and ran 13.28.

"I was put into the fat group," he said, still unimpressed, particularly with himself. "There were seven or eight of us and we weren't allowed to train with the team. For a week were were left out all the skill work."

Skipper Johnson's reaction?

"It wasn't so much what he did say, but what he didn't," said Deledio. "The looks of disgust made me feel pretty bad. Like I'd let him down. He is a bit like a father figure and you don't like letting your dad down."

One week later Deledio completed the Tan in 13.08. "There's no way I could have picked up enough fitness in a week to improve by that much. I must have still been at the beach in my head when I first did it."

Father Wayne was his coach back home and continues to push his son. "Terry (Wallace) is a bit like my Dad; the negative generally outweighs the positive," Deledio said. "This year he's told me I need to work on the defensive side of my game, like tackling, and continue to back myself and take on the game as much as I can. "He's always been there to drill me if one or two things are wrong. I'm glad he is going to be here for a while longer."

Another wake-up call came when teammates Joel Bowden and Kayne Pettifer were dropped early in the season. "The message to all of us was, 'If you don't tackle, you don't play'," said Deledio. "I went down to watch Dal and Milney (Saints Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne) when they were in the twos against Coburg and they obviously had things they needed to work on and it was a good reminder."

In 2007 Deledio's speed, power and ability in the air were not accompanied by the defensive skills and mental toughness that were needed to run for an entire game, shake taggers and hide pain and exhaustion.

Deledio often asked to play in the midfield but was told he was not ready. He had to work harder during matches. For most of this season he has played as a running half-forward but against Hawthorn six days ago Deledio started the game in the middle of the ground and looked, in the words of the coach, "locked, loaded and ready to go".

With Richmond only the slimmest of chances to make the eight in 2008, Deledio is bullish about 2009 because of the potential returns of his first housemate in Melbourne, Mark Coughlan, and Andrew Raines, as well as the continued improvement of "the younger boys".

"I'd be really disappointed if we didn't make finals next year," he said. "The older guys want success and there is so much more belief in the young guys now — Daniel Connors and Shane Edwards and Jack Riewoldt are three who have really stepped up — and we all believe in each other."

Next year, Deledio's brother Matt, 19, will move to Melbourne and share his house. The younger Deledio, who put himself up for last year's draft but missed out, will study in the city and maybe play for Coburg or — his big brother hopes — find himself elevated to the big time.

On his prospects in the Jack Dyer Medal, Deledio is emphatic. "I hope Rick (Matthew Richardson) wins it. He deserves it. He's had a stellar year. I reckon he's got another five seasons left in him."

Nathan Foley - The Fairfax site had a nice article about Foley:

Foley return timely for Tigers
August 22, 2008 - 3:00PM

Foley missed last weekend's win over Hawthorn with a hip injury, but was on Thursday night named to play against the Dockers.

While he did some extra one-on-one work at the end of Thursday's training session, Royal said there was no doubt he would play.

And he said his return was timely, given the Dockers had been performing well at the clearances in the last part of the season, led by the dominance of ruck giant Aaron Sandilands.

"Nathan's our best clearance player, so it's extremely important that he's playing this weekend," Royal said.

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