Tigers’ tipping point left them badly exposed. Now an AFL ambush is on the cardsBen Cotton
Fox Sports
March 14th, 2022 3:21 pmAfter winning three premierships from the previous four seasons in a golden era, Richmond tumbled all the way out of the top eight in 2021.
While a widespread number of injuries to stars certainly played a role, the Tigers — even when they fielded stronger teams — didn’t play with the same edge and hunger as they had previously.
In 2022, Damien Hardwick’s team will be on a mission to bounce back and see if it can extend its successful period and prove that last year was just an outlier and not the start of a regression.
The signs are good early, with Richmond looking like its old self again in a dominant 25-point AAMI Community Series win over Hawthorn, albeit a pre-season game.
Things will look a little different following the departures of several guns, while Trent Cotchin has handed over the captaincy to Dylan Grimes and Toby Nankervis in a dual-skipper setup.
But it’s otherwise the same Tigers of old, and it’d be foolish to write off such a dominant powerhouse of recent times.
THE THREE S’SOne thing that the Tigers have always been able to count on is their system.
It’s not always pretty, but the manic defensive pressure and chaos style to surge the ball forwards has been the dominant brand of the competition. Recapturing it would hold them in good stead, no matter which players are available.
According to former Hawthorn sharpshooter Ben Dixon, the Tigers tick off each of the ‘Three S’s’ for how he assesses the potential fortunes of a team — system, side and (past) success.
And while not outright picking them to win the flag, Dixon predicts they’ll be among the premiership contenders this year.
“They’re too good a team and well coached by Damien Hardwick to stay down. Once you’ve had a successful system, you’re going to find yourself playing finals. I don’t think we’ll see them outside the top eight again,” he told foxfooty.com.au.
“You can’t have a system that has yielded sustainable success like they’ve had and fall away so suddenly — the backdoor doesn’t just blow open, it’s nailed shut. They’ve developed some really good IP in the way they’ve played.
“And of course, their team still stacks up against the best of them. They looked pretty tired last year and were banged up, it wasn’t necessarily the system that broke down. It was a culmination of being up for so long, but it’s often when you don’t have air and come down, you get to go back up again.”
OVERCOMING INJURIES AND QUESTIONS OF DEPTHThe Tigers were hit as badly as any team by injuries last year, with Dustin Martin, Shane Edwards, Toby Nankervis (all restricted to 16 games), Noah Balta, Nathan Broad (both 14), Kane Lambert (13) and Dion Prestia (12) missing significant chunks of the season.
Although every club, no matter how good they are, has a tipping point, it exposed queries around Richmond’s depth, further heightened by the off-season departures of Bachar Houli, David Astbury, Mabior Chol, Callum-Coleman Jones.
Already adding to their woes, Nick Vlastuin and Jack Graham (both hamstring) have had injury-interrupted pre-seasons, Grimes (thumb) could miss the early rounds and Lambert (hip) might not play at all in 2022.
It means the Tigers may need bigger contributions from their lesser names and more development from their youngsters.
However Dixon wasn’t overly concerned by the Tigers’ personnel.
“They’ve lost some players, but they showed in the past that if you lose a player, you can replace him with one, and they’ve done that so well. I just think collectively they looked like a really tired team,” he said.
“When you’re tired, you can’t operate your system as best you possibly can. But I don’t think their injuries as such hurt their chances, it was more the collective energy across the group.
“They look like a team that if they lose someone, look forward to replacing them. If they lose a Dusty Martin, they regroup to work out how they cover Dusty, or if they’re down two of their members from their back six, they work out how to collectively make it a better defensive unit.”
WILL THE NEW-LOOK BACK SIX HOLD UP?A new-look back six looms as potentially the biggest area of concern for Richmond in 2022 after losing gun statesmen Houli and Astbury, while Noah Balta is set to make the switch forward.
The Tigers did bring in veteran backman Robbie Tarrant to help cover the loss of Astbury, while Pick 9 Josh Gibcus also appears likely to slot straight into their defensive unit.
Defence has been such an important part of Richmond’s DNA in recent years, with Alex Rance’s ACL blow in 2019 followed by his retirement showing how strong it was as a collective — also forcing others to stand up.
“Most good teams over the years always had a strong backline. And you don’t need the best backline in the competition to win the flag, you just need the right mix,” Dixon said.
“Most of the pressure when the ball is coming down the field is from the forwards pushing up and the midfield. If that’s on — which Richmond is very good at — you don’t need a top three backline in the competition, you just need the right flexibility and personnel in terms of matchups.”
DUSTY GETTING BACK TO HIS BESTIn a move that will excite Richmond fans and strike fear through the competition as another one of Hardwick’s adjustments in 2022, a trimmed-down Martin, following his serious kidney injury, will spend more time on the ball.
It’s not like the Tigers are lacking firepower in attack without Martin, spearheaded by Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt.
One of the greatest players of all-time, we’ve seen exactly how dominant Martin can be playing almost exclusively in the midfield, most notably his incredible 2017 season, where he claimed Brownlow Medal, Norm Smith Medal and premiership honours.
But Dixon believes Martin’s capacity to simply play a role is what’s most important — not him racking up huge numbers — and being around the contest more.
“He sacrifices his game as good as anyone. A lot of people think Dusty just does his own thing and pushes forward when he wants, but they’re not watching the game. You’ve got to watch what he does off the ball, he’s actually playing in the system and his role within it,” he said.
“That 2017 year when he won everything other than the Melbourne Cup was just incredible. Since then, I’m not looking for Dusty’s 30 disposals and four goals, I’m looking for 25 disposals and two goals and four goal assists.
“I don’t know if he can take his game to a new level. The positive for me is to see him back in the midfield, instead of sitting forward — because he’s so dangerous around the ball.”
THE VERDICTWith an average of two changes to the top eight between seasons and the Tigers still boasting a star-studded list, all signs point to them pushing back into the finals picture.
There’s still upside on their list, particularly if the likes of Shai Bolton and Liam Baker can reach new heights and the next wave of youngsters buy in.
They won’t go into Thursday’s game against Carlton absolute red-hot favourites as they have for several years. But Richmond fans have plenty of reason to be bullish in 2022 and potentially even daring to dream about a fourth flag since 2017.
“If they do it, they’d have to even trump the Hawthorn’s of the world over that successful period. They’d have to be the best team over the last 15 years. Even without a three-peat,” Dixon said.
“If they can bounce out of the eight and then come back and win it, that’s enormous.”
KEY INSRobbie Tarrant, Josh Gibcus
KEY OUTSDavid Astbury, Mabior Chol, Callum Coleman-Jones, Bachar Houli
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-2022-richmond-tigers-season-preview-list-analysis-strengths-and-weaknesses-dustin-martin-midfield-injury-list-defence/news-story/6ab7b617c335cbd366f70d7dbccf7c8a
