Richmond CEO Brendon Gale has rubbished claims that the club was overly sensitive during the editing process of an upcoming Amazon documentary.
A report in the Herald Sun last week suggested that the Tigers “pored over every minute” before approving the final cut of their role in the seven-part ‘Making Their Mark’ series.
It also indicated that there was “sensitivity around coach Damien Hardwick’s extracurricular activities” and “sphincter clenching from the club hierarchy” surrounding the vision.
Gale has responded to those claims by simply rubbishing the report.
“For what it’s worth, I did read that article, it’s complete rubbish,” he said on Sportsday.
“We couldn’t have been more cooperative.
“The featured person was (President) Peggy (O’Neal) and when that became problematic because of COVID, it sort of rolled into me to some extent, and they were probably more underwhelmed with me and moved onto ‘Dimma’.
“Dimma couldn’t have been more open and more accessible. He took the camera right into the heart of all the meetings and all the games. It’s going to be incredible.
“For an article suggesting we didn’t cooperate and were hiding was just completely false.
“Yes, we had some minor edits and some things were a little sensitive at the time, but absolutely cooperative in every respect.
“It will be compelling vision.”
The doco will air on Amazon Prime on March 12.
Regarding the on-field status of the back-to-back premiers, Gale was confident that the playing group is well placed for a genuine tilt at a fourth premiership in five years.
“They’re battle-hardened and they’ve got a flint-edged focus on performance,” he added.
“They’re really well prepared, they’re well coached, they’re hungry, they’re a very driven group – and I expect them to take that attitude into the 2021 season.”
Gale touched on a number of other topics during the interview on Sportsday, including fans returning to the MCG for the season opener against Carlton, Dustin Martin’s tenuous link to Sydney and more.
Listen below: