Craig Lambert | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Craig Lambert

Tango

Tiger Champion
Oct 6, 2004
3,249
0
Macau
cleaning out my garage last night and found an AFL record from our night grand final against essendon 1993 i think?
Plenty of wraps on Lambert and how well he was playing, carving them up in the midfield, can someone refresh my memory of why we let him go to Brizzy Bears? Him and Northy leaving were 2 of our worst decisions i reckon
 

Rosy

Tiger Legend
Mar 27, 2003
54,348
31
Tango said:
Him and Northy leaving were 2 of our worst decisions i reckon

Neither of those decisions was ours. They both walked out.
 

Dyer'ere

Licensed to kazoo
Sep 21, 2004
19,101
6,953
I think we offered Lambert and Hogg to Fitzroy for Broderick, M.Gale and M.Dundas. Not sure if he had asked to be traded before the Fitzroy offer. Anyways, Lambert would not go to the Roys and walked. The deal went through without him. I believe we thought Lambert was injured beyond repair at the time and we weren't far off the mark. Showed some great form for Brisbane when he could get on the park. Another young Tiger star whose career was marred and shortened by injury- not to mention by playing for the Bears!
 

pahoffm

No one player is bigger than the club.
Mar 24, 2004
21,145
1
Yep, Lambert was a really good rover who defied the logic that you had to be big bodied to be able to throw yourself into the bottom of packs and come out with the ball.

Lambert started at Richmond in 1987, I believe, where he played in our losing U19 Grand Final side, along with Tony Free.

Free made his senior debut in the last couple of H&A games in 87, Lambert debuted at the beginning of 1988. Lambert learnt an amazing amount about roving from his coach, over his first 4 years of senior football, in Kevin Bartlett. He proved himself a fearless rover although only 5'10" and as skinny as his mentor Bartlett.

One of the lessons he learnt with Bartlett is that loyalty should always be bilateral. Bartlett had explained his thoughts on the lack of loyalty shown by the Tiger Board toward Hafey at the end of 1976. When Bartlett's contract was not renewed at the end of 1991, doubts started creeping into Lambert's mind. At the end of the 1993 season, he had heard rumours that the Tigers were going to trade him. He thought no smoke without fire.

He'd spent most of his career playing with the cellar-dwelling Tigers, so moving to the then cellar-dwelling Bears did not pose a problem. He did. And there you have the answer to your question.

Lambert's arrival at the Bears timed extremely well with the their movement up the ladder. No coincidence there.

Northey's departure was a bit more complicated. To say that the mind of John Northey is extremely complicated is an understatement. It was a brilliant football mind, but like all geniuses, he had his equally extreme flaws. I say no more, but, he left Melbourne, Richmond and also the Bears under similar circumstances.
 

lutt

Tiger Rookie
Aug 1, 2004
444
0
I was told that Carlton offered us a young Brett Ratten
in a swap for Lambert but we knocked it back.
Does anyone know if this is true.
 

pahoffm

No one player is bigger than the club.
Mar 24, 2004
21,145
1
lutt said:
I was told that Carlton offered us a young Brett Ratten
in a swap for Lambert but we knocked it back.
Does anyone know if this is true.

Don't know, or can't remember. :(
 

sucker4richond

Tiger Champion
Mar 4, 2004
3,218
0
Melbourne
geez we had a decent midfield in the very early 90's before lambert left and tony free went down with injury.

w campbell
m knights
t free
c lambert

i thought that would be our on ball unit for 10 years
the original fab 4
 

nwonash

Tiger Champion
Aug 10, 2003
3,918
0
Melbourne
Yes, Richmond made an attempt to trade Lambet and the deal feel through.  By memory I believe it was Carlton that Richmond tried to trade Lambert to.

Lambert was a champion winning a best and fairest by memory.  Kicking wasn't his strength, but he knew how to win the ball.  

When Lambert learnt of this, he spat the dummy and walked out.  Just like what happened with Presscott a few years later.

You'd think that the club would have learned better.
 

Boyanich

Tiger Matchwinner
Jan 13, 2004
922
0
Regional Victoria
I think it was Fitzroy that Lambert was linked with, and he didn't want to go.

He put himself in the draft.

In those days, I was playing mixed netball with his girlfriend, Melissa, and the thought was that North would pick him up.

Out of the blue he was going to Brisbane, and we lost a bloody good GA.
 

cassady

You took my dreams from me when i first found you
Nov 22, 2004
2,625
1
Floating
interestingly, and sadly, re. the fab four mentioned earlier; none of them ever reached their potential, probably cos of the contant upheavals at tigerland. its ironic that campo outlasted the others, altho he was younger. he aint in the class of the other 3. more durable perhaps?
 

dmx

Formulating Intrinsic Mechanisms
Apr 21, 2004
4,667
0
Lambo was livid because the tiges were using him as trade bait without telling him.

He received a call from one of the clubs asking for his terms and that is how he found out.

He took total offence to it, and told the tigers to stick it.

Hence he placed himslef in the PSD and the Lions picked him up for zilch.

Great work boys.
 

seven

Super Tiger
Apr 20, 2004
26,339
12,215
lutt said:
I was told that Carlton offered us a young Brett Ratten
in a swap for Lambert but we knocked it back.
Does anyone know if this is true.

Heard that one too. Lambert was prepared to go to Carlton but Richmond said Ratten wasn't up to standard. So we lost Lambert to the PSD for nothing.
Another draft stuff up by the club. :(
 

kb7882

Tiger Champion
Jul 10, 2003
3,662
0
Lilydale
After Lambert's first stellar year or two, he was tagged and physically targetted very hard and close (read: 'bashed' - as teams now do to Camporeale).

He struggled to cope with that physical pressure.

Let's hope Cogs will cope better when the inevitable attention comes his way. Expect so, as he is physically stronger than Lambert.
 

neeld

The incarnate of E.T
Apr 20, 2004
401
0
from memory lambert by the time he went north had his best footy behind him anyways. he wouldnt have made much of a difference. certainly didnt set the world on fire with brisbane...
 

taraba

Eat em alive!!!
Jul 27, 2004
4,151
1,475
Planet Earth
Just to clarify. I remember the incident quite well and at the time the trade offer of Ratten for Lambert was an insult. Lambert was an established star and a key part of our side where Ratten was an awkward looking kid with unspectacular skills and his much talked about vision impairment.

To Ratts credit he worked his backside off to become a great player for the Blues. Lambert left during his prime and we ended up with nothing. In many ways it was similar to the Nick Stevens stand off with Port last year.

But the whole incident was just another classic Richmond debacle really. Should never have happened.
 

Tubytiger

Tiger Legend
Jul 14, 2004
6,805
0
I played with Lambo at Danenong before he got to the tigers and he was a ball magnet - really like williams was for Carlton. How we wanted to dish him off to another club was beyond me. All clubs need players like that.