The Richmond Tigers won only two games in the 2024 season after a decade of success and are entering a fresh rebuild after trading away four experienced players in Shai Bolton, Liam Baker, Daniel Rioli and Jack Graham and the retirement of AFL legend Dustin Martin.
This season is an important one for the Tigers if they are to avoid years of losing.
The Tigers had eight picks in the 2024 AFL draft, including a whopping seven in the first 28 which is unheard of. With a large amount of experience leaving and low expectations there is no reason for a large number of the rookies to not play their first game in the AFL and build experience over the year.
The main issue with this is often with inexperience comes mistakes and when you have too many players who haven’t played long at the level this can lead to losing.
Richmond needs to rely heavily on players who have spent years in the system to guide their young players so that they aren’t left out to dry.
Some teams who focus too heavily on recruiting young talent, such as North Melbourne over the last few years, get stuck in a position where they don’t win games for long periods of times which can drive away their young talent to search for competitive teams and build a culture that doesn’t understand how to win games because they haven’t been able to.
The Tigers need to be competitive this year not only to make sure their players don’t leave but to teach the young guys about the pressures that come with close games and how to deal with them. The great thing is that they don’t have to nail these moments early in their career, but need to be put in this position to succeed even if they don’t.
They still have these types of players on their list who can positively affect winning and teach these draftees. The backline still consists of Nick Vlaustin and Nathan Broad who are both multi premiership players and have had long careers in the AFL.
The midfield contains former All-Australian midfielders Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper who are tied to the club in long contracts and will be looking to win after being recruited to the club. Tom Lynch who has kicked 462 goals over his career will be a mentor to the four key forwards who have been drafted over the last two years and is always a dominant force on the field when his body allows him to play long periods of AFL.
If these older players can keep the Tigers competitive enough for the young talent to shine and win some games over the year, it will be deemed a successful year.
There is a fine line that needs to be balanced between the Tigers playing their young talent and giving them exposure at the AFL level and building a competitive and winning attitude and not being a bottom feeder of the AFL over the next couple of years.
