Brad Ottens
By Chris Greenway

Brad Ottens. The first time I ever heard of him was when we traded crowd favourite Chris Bond and a high draft pick to Fremantle for selection No 2 in the national draft. I remember hearing that some big kid from South Australia called Brad Ottens was likely to be No 2 and thinking he better be good.

Something about him right from when I first saw him told me that he was going to be more than good. When he helped us to victory over Essendon in the first round 1998 I knew that I'd witnessed the birth of an exceptional player. He played about half of that first season in the seniors and understandably spent a lot of that on the bench. The following year was very similar and it became apparent that Gieschen did not really know what to do with the talent at his disposal. Frawley wanted to use him as a forward cum ruckman instead of the other way around and the injury to Richardson enabled him to to do that in 2000. However Ottens really came into his own in 2001 when he formed one of the 'twin towers' with Richo and we had a stellar year that got us into the Preliminary Final. Weight of expectation and the burden of being our only class big man told on Ottens last year and he disappointed many of us. People started to mention that dreaded phrase: 'unrealised potential'. I felt that he was in for a big year this year and until the back injury that was going to be the case. He's playing now, but he won't be at his peak until a game or two before the end of the season. Hopefully he can make 2004 his, because if he can then Richmond will be a lot better side for it.