OVERREACTIONS, POSITIVES, NEGATIVES & UNDROPPABLES FOR ALL 18 AFL TEAMS IN ROUND 5Andrew Slevison
SEN
17 April 2023The Key Takeaway: Is it as bad as everyone is saying?Things aren’t quite going to plan for Richmond in 2023.
The injury list is long and has plenty of important players on it which has opened the door for the club’s youth.
Nine players had 21 games or less of experience heading into the Sydney game and aside from a 10-minute patch when blown away late, the Tigers were largely competitive.
While the big guns are out, the inexperienced get the chance to develop and learn in the cutthroat AFL environment.
Looking at it through a positive lens, the Tigers are seven points off holding a 3-2 record and if that was the case the narrative would be fairly different.
However, that’s not the case, so they have to deal with the criticism for now.
But is it as bad as it seems? The next few weeks will tell.
The Overreaction: Sold the farm for Taranto and HopperAlready in 2023 there has been a fair bit of talk around Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
And most of it hasn’t been positive.
The Tigers gave up plenty to recruit the pair from GWS and given the club’s current position, it’s easy to sink the boots in.
But it’s not their fault the Tigers are sitting 15th. They would be two of the top four or five players at Richmond this season.
Yes, it might have been a lot to part ways with to get them in, but they should be given more time to prove themselves.
It will be a different story if Richmond misses finals this year, however.
The Negative: Playing in fits and spurtsFor the second week in a row, Richmond basically played just one quarter of good footy.
Last week it was the second term when kicking eight goals against the Dogs, this week it was the third quarter against the Swans when they kicked seven.
In the last two games, Richmond has kicked 15 goals in two quarters, and just eight in the remaining six terms.
That’s not enough of a spread to win games in the AFL in 2023.
What they need to tweak for next week: Discipline must improveThe Tigers were quite undisciplined against the Swans.
There were silly free kicks, inexplicable 50-metre penalties and general carry on from some of the players that Damien Hardwick admitted was not good enough.
At the moment in large portions, it’s Richmond killing Richmond.
If the Tigers can rid themselves of those frustrations and avoid such glaring mistakes, they might just be able to turn things around sooner than later.
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/04/17/overreactions-positives-negatives-and-undroppables-for-all-18-afl-teams5/