Champion Data: How Richmond’s premiership blueprint is being copied by AFL teamsThe Damien Hardwick era is over, but the influence of his tactics can still be seen throughout the AFL. SHANNON GILL and Champion Data analyse how rivals are trying to mimic the Tigers.
Shannon Gill
HeraldSun
July 6, 2023There’s an apocryphal line about the 1960s rock group the Velvet Underground that speaks to their influence; while their popularity was niche, everyone who bought their records started a band.
It means their sound in some way would influence all manner of rock music for decades to come. And so it is with the AFL.
If you win, there are 17 other clubs wondering if they should do what you’re doing.
In the case of Richmond’s triple premiership success in 2017-2020, however, that influence is more far-reaching than usual.
As Champion Data has discovered, the buds of Richmond’s surge mentality have been flowering at other clubs with Tiger-ties ever since, and it’s all represented by the forward handball.
SURGING TIGERS‘The Richmond surge’ will be talked about in hushed tones for as long as we talk about footy.
But as much as the manic harassing, tackling and knocking the ball forward is synonymous with that team, handball metres gained might be the best measure of how unique they were.
That is, instead of backwards or lateral handballs to escape pressure or find someone in a better position to kick, the handball that is directed forward.
Richmond would handball forwards, for better or worse, with the intention of finding space and quickly releasing another player to break the lines of defence. They believed that creative, forward-momentum handballs created goals.
In 2016, Richmond sat 10th in the league in metres gained from handballs. They became handball happy while breaking a 37-year premiership drought in 2017.
From 2017 to 2022, the Tigers were number one in the AFL for handball metres gained every season. Usually by huge margins too.
In their 2019 premiership year, Richmond averaged 497 metres gained per game with handballs. The next best team averaged 209.3 metres gained per game.
Champion Data reveals the Tigers have gained more metres from handball than any other team since 2017.It is a staggering discrepancy that shows just how different the Tigers were then and continue to be now.
In raw numbers the Tigers have gained 63,555 metres from handball since 2017. The next best team is Geelong (the only team with more matches) on 31,877 metres.
COACHING TO BE HANDBALL HAPPYOnce upon a time players who played under successful coaches were deemed attractive coaching options (premiership coaches Tom Hafey, Ron Barassi, Allan Jeans, David Parkin and Robert Walls all coached at least 14 players that became senior coaches), but now it relates to assistant coaches.
It was no different for Richmond and Damien Hardwick, who watched a group of lieutenants get senior roles at other clubs.
Everyone wanted some Richmond magic. And while some have not succeeded, others are flying.
The first to do it were Essendon hiring Ben Rutten.
Rutten was sacked late in 2022, the project deemed a failure, but he did succeed to a degree in transporting the Richmond handball game.
At the end of 2019 he was announced as the successor to John Worsfold, and to many minds was effectively the senior coach in 2020 before being officially appointed.
In 2020 and 2021, Essendon were second only to Richmond for handball metres gained.
It culminated in a finals appearance in 2021 then all went awry in 2022, but elsewhere there were others using the Richmond blueprint to greater effect.
CHAOTIC COLLINGWOODIn the 1980s it was said there was a trail of bad blood that ran from Victoria Park to Punt Road due to the poaching of players that put both clubs on the edge of bankruptcy.
In 2022 there may have been a trail of roses down Olympic Boulevard.
When Craig McRae amicably packed his belongings at Richmond to take Collingwood’s top job, he brought another one-time Tiger assistant Justin Leppitsch and stuffed his kitbag with the forward handball.
Overnight, handball metres gained became paramount for the Pies; ‘Collingwood chaos’ is a direct descendant of the ‘Richmond surge’.
In 2022, Collingwood’s 324.1 handball metres gained per game was second only to Richmond’s 359.8, as they rose up the ladder.
This year they’ve zoomed past Richmond to be the biggest forward handballers in the game, averaging 385 metres gained in each outing.
Of course they’re also sitting first on the ladder that matters.
In 2023, Collingwood have zoomed past Richmond to be the biggest forward handballers in the game.Some four of the top six teams for handball metres gained per game in 2023 have direct coaching DNA from the Richmond flag era; Collingwood (McRae), Richmond (Hardwick, now Andrew McQualter), Essendon (formerly Rutten), GWS Giants (coached by former Richmond assistant Adam Kingsley). Shaun Grigg, who played in the 2017 premiership team, is an assistant coach at Geelong.
The sixth of that group, Hawthorn, has an interesting tale too.
After five rounds they sat last in the competition for this measure at 87.2 metres gained, but it appears coach Sam Mitchell then flicked the handball happy switch.
From rounds 6-16 they’ve been going at a higher rate (426.9 metres gained) than Collingwood and now sit third overall in the league. Since the handball shift, Hawthorn’s scoring has risen by 14.4 points per game too.
And is there a Richmond connection?
Hardwick spent five years as a Hawthorn assistant coach highlighted by a Mitchell-skippered premiership.
INDIVIDUALS INFLUENCEDIt is not just team statistics that show the influence of Richmond’s golden run.
The top three players in the league for handball metres gained are Jack Crisp and Nick Daicos, disciples of McRae, and Hardwick’s pupil and one-time house boarder Daniel Rioli.
Of the top twenty players, nine have been touched by the forward handball bug through Richmond coaching; Tigers Rioli, Shai Bolton and Marlion Pickett, Collingwood’s Crisp, Daicos and Scott Pendlebury, and Nic Martin, Andrew McGrath and Dylan Shiel under the former tutelage of Rutten.
The individual statistics also show the influence of Richmond’s golden run.Lineage and legacy in footy may be sentimental, but it can also be tangible.
The Hardwick era may be over at Richmond, but its influence lives on through the AFL and may just claim another flag.
https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/champion-data-how-richmonds-premiership-blueprint-is-being-copied-by-afl-teams/news-story/5d6b1186d15ef9741394a02f12097f0b
