Nine games into the AFL's first vibes-based rebuild, the Tigers might be changing list management forever
Dem Panopoulos
theRoar
16 April 2025[/i]
In 2024, Richmond went bold in undertaking the first ever pure vibes-based rebuild.
They brought in a bunch of kids, offloaded a swathe of veterans, and went all in on building from the bottom up.
Nine games into said rebuild, they’ve exceeded all expectations already.
There’s nothing statistically outstanding about the Tigers in 2025, as one would expect for a team averaging 67 points per game and conceding 101.
Yet this is a team that was touted as a guaranteed wooden-spooner, who would only manage one or maybe two wins at most for the entirety of the season. While the former may still ring true, with three wins in nine games, things are rosier than could have been imagined.
Results, of course, aren’t a particularly important metric at the start of a rebuild. The Tigers could lose every game for the rest of the season and it wouldn’t make much of a difference if the approach were to stay the same.
However, beating Carlton and Gold Coast are significant accomplishments, and indeed rewards for effort. Holding on against an Eagles team that finally showed desire and intent further showed a level of professionalism you wouldn’t have expected from such a young side.
In fact, in pretty much every game this season, the Tigers have shown at least a quarter’s worth of the desired intangibles that can easily be lost on a team expected to be in the doldrums for an extended period of time.
Encouragingly, those patches of positive play have come at different stages within games. They’ve had matches where they’ve lit the field ablaze with quick, high-scoring footy early, they’ve had increased pressure at the start and made it difficult for the opposition to move the ball fluidly, while a couple of times, they’ve salvaged the scoreboard late on with strong finishes and continued hard-running opening up avenues to goal.
Some see this as a simple by-product of the opposition taking their foot off the pedal, yet it’s in these situations that Adem Yze tends to push Tim Taranto forward, leave Jacob Hopper out of the centre bounce, and give the young guys a run in the middle too.
To most, it’s just a landslide petering out. To Richmond stakeholders, it’s positive affirmation to the full-game commitment that the playing group already has instilled within itself.
There is clearly a focus under Yze in trying to stay strong defensively. Despite conceding over 100 points a game, they’re actually holding up decently well and have improved on 2024 – the Tigers are right on league average for shots conceded per inside 50.
It’s just that the team has the highest percentage of these shots turning into scoring shots in the league. Hey, at least they’re decisively leaky when they concede.
That aspect probably comes as no surprise, as it’s the area of the ground where the Tigers are most well-covered by a veteran presence. Nick Vlastuin is having an outstanding season and Nathan Broad hasn’t dropped off too much. While Noah Balta hasn’t been around much for obvious reasons, he has been solid when there, and Ben Miller has defended strongly in his stead
Sure, the bigger numbers have been amassed by the experienced guys – Taranto, Hopper, Vlastuin, Jayden Short, Toby Nankervis and Tom Lynch the standouts.
But unlike other teams that have struggled for a long period of time, the Tigers looked re-energised at times this year. It’s perhaps exemplified by Kamdyn McIntosh, a dual premiership wingman, becoming a contested ball-winner and number one protector at Tigerland to save his career.
It’s easy to get big numbers in a bad team. It’s much harder to seem invested in these situations. Pride can become a factor in bad teams – it’s why clubs can fall apart easily.
The Tiger veterans appear inspired by the youth, rather than anchored by them.
As for the youth, Yze has done a good job in spreading the talent across different lines and in varying degrees of responsibility and exposure.
Of the seven top-28 picks in last year’s draft, only Josh Smillie and Taj Hotton have not featured, due to injury. The rest have had exposure, with Sam Lalor and Luke Trainor the regulars.
But this isn’t the sort of exposure we’ve seen in another failed rebuild attempts, or off longer runways, where the pressure has been immediately placed on these highly valued picks to play key roles and act as saviours for the club.
Lalor has largely flown under the radar, enjoying time as a forward with rare bursts in the middle. His top-end highlights have shown oodles of potential, but not an iota of criticism has come his way if he isn’t impacting games in a large way.
That only happens if the veterans are willing to be enablers in protecting and developing.
As a result, Lalor has played eight games and has seven goals and nine goal assists, an exceptional return.
Trainor has probably been the best of Richmond’s youngsters, to the selfish delight of perhaps his biggest draft-year fan.
His athleticism, elite reading of the play, willingness to take the game on and underrated closing speed have all featured in different ways. He has ideal mentors in defence that will positively impact his intercepting and ball use for when the veterans depart in the future, too.
The balance in recruiting a mix of athletic key forwards with hard-working grunt men, and dynamic utilities with smart, assiduous effort players, has to be commended.
Seth Campbell has 14 goals and is more than just a goal-scoring spark, Sam Banks just topped the possession tally in a win with clean ball use, and shall we talk about Tom Brown’s tackle on Tom Gross?
The Tigers can’t give the young talls an opportunity if Lynch isn’t staying fit and taking the heat away from them, either. His seven goal assists and nine contested marks are way more important than his major tally possibly could be.
Yze has struck the perfect balance of experience and youth; just as well, given how the Tigers have regenerated their list on the run.
The VFL team too, has won four of its first six games. As is the case with the senior team, it’s the experienced reserves players facilitating the flourishment of youth, who are earning spots in the AFL on merit rather than solely on potential.
Expectations simply won’t be altered for the rest of 2025 at Tigerland. No one inside those much spoken about ‘four walls’ is staring at the ladder, or even the wins column, and using that as any sort of metric of success.
The non-negotiables come from the effort and commitment that this Richmond team has played with for over two months.
Sometimes, they’ll get smashed by a more seasoned unit. Other times, it’ll cause grief for the opposition. Internally, if there are periods of positivity, they’ll be lauded.
At training, the vibes are high. On game day, the vibes are high. In interviews and press conferences, the vibes remain high.
It was a bold decision for the Tigers to take the unique route of a complete reset, amassing a historic number of draft picks for an established club and using them all.
They wanted to get ahead of the game with Tasmania’s impending arrival, and took a risk.
Not every young player will make it – that’s just a part of the game – but the Tigers aren’t going to leave any stone unturned in their pursuit to build their next premiership list.
If the Tigers are going to have a third of their list be teenagers and guys in their early 20s, they’ll also allow them to dictate the direction of the club within the existing parameters that the remnants of a dynasty team has left.
Right now, it’s intoxicatingly refreshing to see a team at the bottom in a positive light, in a footballing landscape that increasingly loves to harbour negativity towards those that struggle.
Oh, and don’t forget the Tigers have North Melbourne’s first pick in this draft, which adds a bit of spice to this little rivalry that the teams will seek to build upon in different stages of their rebuild, including on Sunday.
The Tigers have already exceeded expectations in 2025 not halfway through the season. And the vibes are simply immaculate.
https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/05/16/nine-games-into-the-afls-first-vibes-based-rebuild-the-tigers-might-be-changing-list-management-forever/
