Richmond Tigers issues, list analysis, what’s wrong, Tim Livingstone comments

Richmond football boss Tim Livingstone put it best this week: “It’s hard not to look past Friday night, but … it’s going to be an exciting back half (of the season).”

The second year of the Tigers’ highly-praised rebuild has started grimly, and while there are causes for concern in certain areas, ‘patience’ rightly remains the overriding theme.

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

Richmond’s fanbase has justifiably got caught up in the club’s torrid start to the campaign, which has seen it go winless in six weeks with an average losing margin of 51 points.

But while there are game-style issues requiring attention and resolution at Punt Road, there is a brand identity in there, if you look hard enough.

Foxfooty.com.au delves into Richmond’s issues and the numbers behind its sluggish start to the year, ahead of its Anzac Day Eve clash with Melbourne on Friday night.

BEST ABILITY IS AVAILABILITY

Beyond the in-play statistical measures used to define performance in our game, one out-of-play metric is proving deafening: Richmond has used a league-most 34 players inside six games.

Only three other teams in the competition have used 32 or more players to this early point — Adelaide, West Coast, Carlton and Essendon.

Pardon the pun, but the Tigers have been hamstrung by injuries to crucial cogs Toby Nankervis and Tom Lynch, while a plethora of their highly-touted young talent has started the season in the medical room, and a host of key role players have suffered short-term hiccups.

Starkly, just 10 Tigers have played in every game thus far, and that’s about to drop to seven on Friday night after injuries to Sam Banks, Maurice Rioli and Tim Taranto in Round 6.

The silver lining? Sam Lalor is one of those players who’s featured in all six matches. And not just that; he’s also been paramount in Richmond’s cause despite being just 17 games into his career.

The trouble is that Lalor represents only one-third of Richmond’s long-term on-ball rotation.

In a utopian Tigerland, standing around the centre circle next to Lalor are fellow ‘Ferraris’ Josh Smillie and Taj Hotton.

The uncapped Smillie, a big-bodied, 195-centimetre contest beast, embodies the prototypical modern-day midfielder’s frame.

He was drafted as a see-ball-get-ball prospect in the Patrick Cripps mould, but hasn’t been able to get off the ground since initial quad surgery last November and an unrelated strain in March.

The third piece of the puzzle is the electric Hotton, who in seven games last year gave fans Shane Edwards flashbacks with his elusiveness in tight confines and evident footy IQ.

But after a strong preseason had the centre-forward star-in-waiting primed for his second season, he was hit with hip bone stress in February. That’s after a ruptured ACL cruelled his draft year.

In addition to Smillie and Hotton, others from Richmond’s prized 2024 draft crop to have been interrupted by injury already in 2026 include key forward Harry Armstrong (foot stress fracture), ruck-forward Tom Sims (foot stress fracture) and mid-sized forward Jasper Alger (knee).

And last year’s Pick 7, Sam Cumming, who will also be a key contributor in that long-term midfield mix, finally gets his chance in Round 7 after a shoulder subluxation in the preseason.

Richmond’s list management brains trust, led by general manager of football talent Blair Hartley and national recruiting manager Rhy Gieschen, was praised endlessly — and rightly so — for cashing in on wantaway stars two years ago and making seven top-30 selections in one of the most highly-touted drafts in recent memory.

Yet to this point, just two of them have reached the 20-game mark. That has to be factored into any critical analysis of Adem Yze and company.

A RICHMOND STYLE OF GAME

Personnel availability is one thing. How the side plays week-to-week is another — but the two are intertwined.

Rusted-on supporters will fondly recall former coach Damien Hardwick repeatedly referring to a ‘Richmond style of game’ in the media and in team addresses.

To its fans and the rest of the competition, it was clear what he was talking about: without the footy, manic forward-half pressure, and with it, a relentless surge-at-all-costs mentality.

But in the Yze era thus far, it hasn’t been as clear.

And one of Hardwick’s triple premiership disciples, Jack Riewoldt, has been one who hasn’t been able to figure out what these Tigers are trying to do on a weekly basis.

“I don’t see one game looking like another, after we’ve seen five this season, unfortunately,” he told Fox Footy’s On the Couch after Round 5.

“Richmond doesn’t have a handball game at all, at the moment. The best player for the opposition will always be the key back, because they’re bombing the ball.”

But while it mightn’t be desirable to watch, the way Richmond wants to play is becoming clearer. It just hasn’t been conducive to winning.

The Tigers aren’t exciting when they exit their back half. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a less imaginative side with ball in hand, and that’s reflected in the metrics.

Through six rounds, Richmond sits dead-last for chain-to-score rate, score-per-inside-50 and defensive-50-to-inside-50 success rate.

Instead, Yze’s chargers are playing for the contest. They’re prioritising territory and relying on halving aerial contests down the ground. And once they get it in their half of the ground, they’re setting up the play to keep it there until they score.

There’s a thought to be had that Richmond is playing the style it is because it simply doesn’t have the quality in personnel to play a pick-apart kicking game like the Lions’, or the frenetic high-handball brand of the Swans.

One of the main things the Tigers have improved in 2026, though, is their ability to defend transition. They’ve gone from 17th last year to eighth this year for defensive-50-to-inside-50 against, and 15th to fifth for points against from defensive 50.

So, while their offensive play is uninspiring, they’re at least structured to defend it adequately.

These were some of the things Livingstone — who maintains the playing group is upbeat — said were highlighted in the club’s review of its 75-point loss to North Melbourne.

“I promise you there’s a sense of positivity and energy about the players,” Livingstone told Richmond Media’s Talking Tigers podcast.

“Our review on Monday talked about some of the great things we were doing in the game. Halfway through, there were a lot of numbers — time in forward half, inside-50s, our stoppage work — it’d showed an uplift from things that we’d worked on during the week. Even the ability to get shots on goal, but our execution let us down.

“The second half of the game, it was a little bit harder to review from a defensive-offensive mindset, because it’s just a different game of footy when you’re down to two on the bench and you have to move the magnets.

“But we’re also really honest about the fact that that’s probably been our story throughout the first part of the year — phases of the game we’ve been looking good, and then we’re allowing teams to get momentum and put us away at times. It’s a work in progress in that sense.”

Questioned on execution, Livingstone again reiterated territory and defence as the side’s key priorities.

“Last week’s training was focussed on the fact that we were getting the ball forward of centre a lot against GWS but not getting those shots, so we managed to get some good opportunities with the way we entered inside-50, which came out from what we did in training,” he said.

“There was some structural stuff we did around protecting the corridor that we saw an uplift as well — our ability to defend transition ... that was a good sign in the first half but then dropped away.

“That stoppage work, inside-50s and time in forward half were key pillars to our game, and they were great numbers (against North Melbourne) … but not putting it on the scoreboard hurt us. There was an uplift initially, and then it dropped away after half-time.

“As we get more experience, as we spend more time playing together, hopefully those patches reduce, and we play that better footy for longer.”

The emphasis on the continuity piece is worth noting. It certainly isn’t lost on this coaching group how challenging the lack of selection consistency has been.

WHAT’S NEXT, AND WHEN TO JUDGE

Richmond, and by extension Yze, shouldn’t truly be judged until these important casualty ward members return and achieve continuity at senior level.

And that starts in small part on Friday night, when Lynch plays his first game since Round 2, and Cumming gets his taste of the big time.

The external misnomer regarding Lynch is that his immense importance to this side is because of his goalkicking power.

Sure, booting bags goes a long way to winning, but it’s the premiership veteran’s ability to halve those aforementioned aerial contests and draw the opposition’s best defender that’s treasured at the core.

That will exponentially benefit the development of 2024 first-round pick Jonty Faull, Armstrong — when he’s back fit — and 2023 pick Liam Fawcett, who’s been one of the early revelations at Punt Road this year.

“The leadership and maturity that (Lynch) brings, let alone the fact that he’s such an important and terrific player that will drag their best defender, (which) changes the game for the guys around him as well,” Livingstone said.

“There’s all those elements that make Tom so important to us, and just a great leader of young men … one of the best competitors out on the ground. He’s so important to our team.”

Nankervis, who remains around a month away from a return, is arguably as integral to Richmond’s structure as Lynch.

And then it’s about getting some of the prodigious youngsters back into the fold. In particular, supporters are clamouring to see Smillie and Hotton, while Sims could very well develop into Richmond’s ruck of the future post-Nankervis.

But as it pertains to Smillie, patience remains paramount, because as Livingstone explains, the action of kicking has been problematic for the midfielder’s quad.

“He had the surgery (last November), then in March had a strain to the quad — not where the surgery was, so it wasn’t the same area, but around that leg — on kicking,” Livingstone said.

“He’s recovering well from that … he’s now running at above 90 per cent. You see him on the track, straight-line running, looks awesome, starting to kick the ball, but we’ve got to be really careful with that — the progression. It’s the action of kicking at speed that we’ve got to build up slowly.”

Then, and not just for Smillie but for Sims and Hotton to an extent as well, it’s about having a pseudo-preseason before progressing back into proper match play.

“The greatest correlation with the ability to get through an AFL season is to get through a preseason, and get a preseason done,” Livingstone said.

Richmond’s footy boss said he was “absolutely” certain that supporters would get to see those guys in the second half of the year — and that’s the hope the club is selling to its faithful.

As he said, it’s hard not to look past Friday night to how this team could line up at the back end of the season and beyond. Because that’s when we’ll start to judge this rebuild.

Click here to read article