Tigers seek help of Melbourne Storm official in coach search

Richmond has reached out to a decorated Melbourne Storm administrator to assist in the search for its next senior coach, which it hopes to appoint by September.

The Tigers locked in a six-person interview panel for the vacant role on Thursday, with president John O’Rourke saying the club had begun to compile a shortlist of candidates.

Interim coach Andrew McQualter is among the frontrunners to succeed Damien Hardwick, who resigned in May after 14 years at the helm.

Melbourne Storm football operations boss Frank Ponissi will sit on the panel along with former Richmond player and current Football Australia performance director Paddy Steinfort.

O’Rourke said Ponissi, who has led Storm’s football department since 2007 and overseen four premierships and seven grand final appearances, brought “tremendous experience” to the Tigers’ coach search.

“(Ponissi) has been a highly successful coach and administrator both in Australia and internationally,” he said.

“He brings tremendous experience to the panel, understanding high performance environments and coaching that delivers sustained success.”

Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale, football performance manager Tim Livingstone, vice-president Henriette Rothschild and list boss Blair Hartley are the other four members of the panel.

O’Rourke said it was “anticipated” the Tigers would announce their next coach by September, but there was “no firm timeline” attached to the search.

Richmond has won seven of its last eight games and can move back into the top eight with a win over Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.

McQualter praised the Tigers’ medical team ahead of what he said would be his toughest selection call for the year on Thursday night.

Outside runner Jayden Short is set to return from a hamstring injury after training fully at Punt Road this week, with McQualter hinting it would be difficult for last week’s debutant Matthew Coulthard to break into the Tigers’ 22 despite a superb final-quarter effort as the substitute in the nailbiting one-point win over Hawthorn.

Only weeks after he was taken with pick No.4 in the mid-season draft, Coulthard, 22, racked up seven disposals, three score involvements and 169m gained to help the Tigers break the game open with a five-goal final term.

Fellow mature-age rookie Jacob Bauer is also likely to play at AFL or VFL level after overcoming a hamstring strain in the early moments of his senior debut in the win over Sydney.

“We’re going to have the toughest match committee for the year this afternoon,” McQualter said.

“We only have I think three guys unavailable for selection – our medical team has done a great job getting everyone available.

“Matty (Coulthard) gave us a spark when he came on in that last quarter. It was not ideal playing a debutant as the sub, we would have preferred not to do it, but ultimately it was the right thing to do for the team, and he came on and was really able to give us something … he’s certainly given himself every chance.”