To lose three players, in their primes, during one post-season after a host of decorated veterans have retired, is unusual, but not unprecedented.
But to emerge with eight draft choices inside the top 25 – five of them created by the crisis of losing those key players – is unparalleled in the AFL’s modern model of a draft system.
2025 shapes as a tough year for the Tigers after the departure of several key players, but their draft hand should give fans optimism for the future.Credit: Getty Images
On the measure of immediate prospects, Richmond will once again be Struggletown, the name given to the former industrial, working class suburb that gave birth to the Tigers. They will do well to win more than half a dozen games next year or to make finals any earlier than 2027.
On the measure of longer-term prosperity, however, Richmond has absolutely cleaned up.
Their draft haul is comparable to the largesse that was handed to expansion clubs, Gold Coast and GWS, when they entered the competition, with the critical difference that they will be adding these talented draftees to an established, powerful club rather than a fledgling operation.
And while they have a list that has lost Trent Cotchin and most of their triple premiership core, they will be adding those teenagers – callow midfielders, key positions and flankers – to pretty reasonable remnants, such as Tom Lynch, Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Broad, Toby Nankervis, Dion Prestia, Jayden Short and Noah Balta, the latter having just signed a seven-year contract extension.
If Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper didn’t sign up for a rebuild of this magnitude, they can now dream that, like Luke Breust, James Sicily and Jack Gunston at Hawthorn, they will see finals again once these youngsters have been together for three full seasons.
So, if Richmond fans lost heart during 2024 – watching the final stages of a crumbling dynasty, as Dusty Martin and Brendon Gale exited and then premiership heroes Daniel Rioli, Liam Baker and Shai Bolton headed home (Perth) or found new digs on the Gold Coast alongside Damien Hardwick – they should begin 2025 with revived spirits.
