When Richard Tambling sprinted away from Collingwood's Scott Burns and kicked a goal on the run at full pace from 50 metres in the opening game of the 2005 pre-season competition, the Richmond fans in attendance at Etihad Stadium that evening were dancing in the aisles.

A superstar was being unveiled before their very eyes, or so they thought, and the Hawthorn supporters watching on TV could only grimace, reach for the remote control and wonder what the Hawks were thinking on draft day 2004.

Tambling was supposed to be their guy, the teenage superstar from Darwin who was so close to becoming a Hawk that he stayed with recruiting manager Gary Buckenara in the lead-up to the draft.

But Alastair Clarkson, in his first draft as coach of the Hawks, had other ideas and selected Jarryd Roughead with the club's first selection, the second overall. The Tigers who had grabbed Brett Deledio with their first pick, pounced on Tambling with their second selection, the fourth overall, prompting new coach Terry Wallace to declare triumphantly that Richmond had nabbed "the two best players in the draft".

Hawthorn used its second pick, the fifth overall on lanky Perth youngster, Lance Franklin, deliberately setting out to follow the lead of St Kilda, whose drafting of Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke in 2000 was the model that other rebuilding clubs were choosing to follow.

Sadly for the Tigers and for Tambling, that goal in an otherwise meaningless pre-season game, might have been his finest moment in a Tiger jumper.

Lance Franklin soon morphed into Buddy, one of the most exciting and watchable players in more than a decade, and with every freakish act or bag of goals for the Hawks - the Tigers were reminded by an unforgiving football public of the error of their ways back in November, 2004.

News today that Tambling has been traded by the Tigers to Adelaide was most welcome - for Richmond, Adelaide and most importantly, for Tambling himself. Through no fault of his own, he was living in Franklin's shadow. While Franklin became a superstar, Tambling struggled for form and fitness. You suspect he wasn't particularly well coached at Richmond, and that the Tigers just expected the flashy ball magnet who dominated at junior level to evolve into a similar type of player in the AFL.

Tambling didn't work hard enough and didn't seem to have the hunger and the passion for the contest. It might have been his mindset, perhaps the environment, but the good games were infrequent and the great games rare. Apart from 2009, when he finished fourth in the best and fairest, he failed to make a splash at Punt Road.

Adelaide's footy boss Phil Harper said some words after the trade with the Tigers was completed that should be music for Tambling's ears.

"Richard needs a change of scenery and our club can provide that ideally for him. We don't have massive expectations. We just see him playing a wing, half-back or midfield role and to just play his role in the team," Harper told the AFL website.

"He might have been a pick No.4 many years ago, but now he's a pick nothing. He's just a player who we think can play a role at our footy club."

Not only was it right for Tambling to leave Richmond, but to move to a different state, one where Franklin doesn't just dominate the sports headlines, but the social pages as well.

He'll find Adelaide to be a different type of fishbowl, but the type of place where he gives himself one last chance to become the type of player we thought he was going to become.