I can tell you now that Tambling's nickname wasn't as innocuous as
"bloody" once the majority of supporters finally realised he was never
going to deliver.
Some of us were screaming for him to be traded - while he still had
some perceived value - just a couple of years after he was recruited
because we saw through the perennial hype that was never delivered, but in
true Richmond fashion getting a few kicks in the pre-season against his
own teammates was turned into "Brownlow form" too often and the suckers
lapped it up until even they couldn't keep the delusion alive.
I remember seeing Tambling in his first season in a pre-season hitout at
Victoria Park, he missed set shots from 35M out directly in front and I
was left wondering about all the hype about this supposedly super-skilled
kid from NT. His disposal skills never got recognised as a problem in
his whole time at Richmond and therefore never got any attention and never
improved - another player who's career was crippled by the rose-coloured
glasses at Punt Road that refused to recognise any deficiencies in any
player they recruited.
Only Brett Deledio has survived from that period of toxic delusion led by
Terry Wallace and Clinton Casey (and others, of course) that set the place
back the best part of a decade.