Can Richmond challenge again in 2022? [merged]

[one-eyed]

Top-four contenders, finals hopefuls or no-hopers? Your AFL team reviewed

Cameron Rose
theRoar.com.au
11 May 2022

Richmond Tigers

The Tigers are still threatening to be the sleeping giant, finally sneaking into the eight for the first time this season after two wins in a row. Their loss to Adelaide feels like it could haunt them all year, potentially ruling out a top-four or top-six position come finals.

Richmond are the second-highest scoring team and will continue to be an offensive threat while Tom Lynch holds his present form. However, their defence has let them down, ranking tenth for points against and having several big runs of goals kicked against them.

The Tiges still have 21 premiership players running around and arguably the healthiest list in the competition. The ball is completely in their court from here.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/05/11/top-four-contenders-finals-hopefuls-or-no-hopers-your-afl-team-reviewed/

[one-eyed]

Richmond

Maher: “Their best is still very good.”

Gaze: “Almost back.”

De Stoop: “Forward line ominous.”

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/05/11/a-snapshot-of-all-18-afl-clubs-after-8-rounds/

[one-eyed]

Are the Richmond Tigers ready to roar once more in season 2022?

By Rohan Connolly
The Age
May 11 2022 - 7:39pm

There's an entirely understandable fascination in AFL football with "eras", specifically, teams that have proven their worth over a period of time with premierships. It means we talk about them endlessly, whether they're still powers or not.

Take Geelong, for example, whose status seems to have been the subject of ongoing debate for more than 10 years now, certainly since the Cats won their first flag in 2011.

Or going back a fair bit earlier, how about Hawthorn, famously written off after some dispiriting grand final defeats but which just kept rebounding against the odds and the consensus of the experts to the extent the Hawks dubbed the video of their 1991 premiership triumph: "Too old, too slow".

And into this discussion now jumps Richmond, which after three premierships over a four-season period from 2017-20, has certainly franked itself as one of the modern age's greatest teams. Are the Tigers still one of those, however? Or are we talking history? That is an intriguing question given the current state of the AFL season.

It's too easy sometimes to observe a fading power roll out a couple of vintage performances and yell: "Look out", ignoring the gradual erosion of their power and the rise of other contenders. Particularly when some absent stars return to the fold, as champion Dustin Martin did last week for Richmond.

But I'm starting to think there might be a few more roars left in the Tigers yet after their last two wins, not just a dismantling of an admittedly vulnerable West Coast by more than 100 points in Perth, but last Saturday's efficient dismissal of Collingwood at the MCG. Richmond had coughed and spluttered its way through the first six rounds of 2022. But its last two wins have put the Tigers back in the top eight for the first time since last June. And in both victories, there's been plenty of evidence the Tigers really do have their hunger back, the single quality most absent since their decline over the back end of last season.

That hunger has been apparent in the return of ferocious tackling pressure, which marked those mega-successful flag years of 2017, 19-20. And to that end, the performance particularly of Maurice Rioli and the heat he has been able to apply around the 50-metre arc has been significant.

The return of the Richmond appetite has been reflected also in the high rate of scores from turnovers forced from the Eagles and Magpies in both of those big wins. And it's also been obvious simply in Richmond's two highest scores of the season, an aggregate of 42 goals, Tom Lynch responsible for 13 of them and Jack Riewoldt half-a-dozen.

It's there also at the other end of the ground in a much more stable-looking and unflustered defensive set-up. Dylan Grimes' return from injury has clearly had a lot to do with it. But so has Noah Balta being freed to return to his valuable intercept defender role after having been forced to go forward.

With Lynch and Riewoldt having their kicking boots on, and Martin set to return to a role primarily as a goalkicking forward presence with more occasional stints in the midfield, there's a lot more flexibility for coach Damien Hardwick.

And, of course, Richmond's potential return as an entity to be feared is there in the shrinking absentee list, over the last few weeks the likes of Martin, Kane Lambert and Trent Cotchin back in the fold, and this coming weekend the considerable names of Dion Prestia and Nick Vlastuin almost certain to be added to the mix after illness.

The Tigers come up against Hawthorn this Saturday at the MCG, against whom they drew in the final home and away round last year. The Hawks have beaten Richmond just once in their last seven attempts, however, and in contrast with their opponent, have fallen away considerably in recent weeks.

In terms of how the rest of this season looks, for Richmond, it's pretty favourable. Including the Collingwood win, the Tigers have a run of seven games out of eight at their MCG home deck, 10 of the last 15, and only five games of the last 14 against teams currently in the top eight. That's a more than handy run home. So, are the Tigers ready to "Eat 'Em Alive" once more after a blip in transmission, and have a great era continue? It's still too early to say definitively. But the signs are sure starting to look ominous. And as different as the very top of the ladder is looking these days in the presence of the likes of Fremantle and Carlton, already I suspect the presence of Richmond in the lower half of the eight might be causing prospective finals opponents a little more anxiety.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7733650/are-the-richmond-tigers-ready-to-roar-once-more-in-season-2022/

[AstuteTiger]

WHY A “REWIRED” RICHMOND COULD BE A “DANGEROUS” PROPOSITION
BY ANDREW SLEVISON - SEN


The critics are divided when it comes to Richmond.

Some believe they are not good enough to contend, some are indifferent and some are keeping the faith.

The analysis comes on the back of two straight wins which has seen the Tigers move into the eight as the competition’s second highest scorers - a stat which may have snuck under the radar.

On the back of their 27-point win over Collingwood last weekend, former Magpies coach Nathan Buckley dissected how Damien Hardwick has been able to turn things around after a subpar beginning to the season.

The Tigers lost to Carlton (Round 1), St Kilda (Round 3), Adelaide (Round 5) and Melbourne (Round 6), while beating GWS (Round 2) and the Western Bulldogs (Round 4), prior to successive wins over West Coast and the Pies.

Buckley has been impressed by the way Hardwick and his coaching staff have been able to “rewire” things at Punt Road.

“They got to a point where (people were saying) they don’t have this, they don’t have that and there was the slows on them,” Buckley said on SEN’s Whateley.

“I just reckon they have rewired really well.”

Buckley touched on a number of individual moves that have worked well for the Tigers, particularly in recent weeks.

“Dan Rioli wasn’t having an impact as a forward (last year) so he’s been schooled as a back. I reckon he’s playing the best footy of his career as a back,” he said.

“The last two weeks, we’ve had the second ruckman come in. So (Ivan) Soldo has come in with (Toby) Nankervis which gives you an extra (tall). It’s not just about the ruck role, it gives you an extra big body in the front half, and that’s allowed (Noah) Balta to go back.

“That may have always been the plan. ‘Noah was great at times forward, but we need to make sure we’ve got that intercept defender’. He’s played really well the last couple of weeks.

“They needed more pressure. (Liam) Baker went in behind the ball to solidify that. ‘We need more pressure because that’s what we base our game on’. Maurice Rioli has got the traits, he’s got a bit of up and go. That 10-minute period he played and you saw the excitement of his teammates to see those run-down tackles, to see the selfless play and setting up the goals.

“That could be anything. You’ve got the young kid now he feels like he belongs, he believes, is valued and trusted and his natural traits are going to make them better.

“Then you’ve got Dustin Martin sliding back in, Kane Lambert has slid back in. They still haven’t got Dion Prestia, still haven’t got (Nick) Vlastuin, (Dylan) Grimes is back in, (Josh) Gibcus is standing up as a back.

“Then Tom Lynch speaks about, ‘we just decided in the last couple of weeks to try and move the ball a little bit faster through the midfield’.

“So there’s not just the tinkering on personnel and the chess pieces, but there’s a little tinkering on the way they want to go about their offence that sets people up.”

Buckley believes the way things are turning for the Tigers makes them a “fascinating” side to watch as the season progresses and feels they could just be a “dangerous” proposition later in the campaign.

“Things are starting to open up. They’re not going to win it, they’re not going to be the same team, and they’ve acknowledged that. About a month ago, they acknowledged it, ‘we needed to make shifts’,” he added.

“The coaching staff, the connection with the players, this speaks to setting a new path forward, this is what we value you for, this is what we need you to do, this is your next challenge.

“I reckon they’re about to pop. They could well be a really dangerous team when we get to the end of the year as they continue to develop with this rewiring that’s taken place under our nose in the last month.

“The mechanic part of Richmond is fascinating at the moment and continues to take shape.

“I love seeing it from the outside in, when we see the evolution of the next best outfit just by shifting a few chess pieces around.”

The eighth-placed Tigers (4-4) will look to make it three wins on the trot when they take on 12th-placed Hawthorn (3-5) at the MCG this Saturday.

They then look ahead to the Dreamtime at the ‘G clash with Essendon the following weekend.


https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/05/11/why-a-rewired-richmond-could-be-a-dangerous-proposition/?fbclid=IwAR2oE7O8eK2XZ7WffUwD00nA0ptzCUj2IlRDCmRxp1jV2Yt30FZ_cblKhwU

[one-eyed]

From Damian Barrett's Sliding Doors column today:



IF ...
everyone has been doubting the flag credentials of the Tigers this year ...

THEN ...
I've held firm. And now that Dusty is back, reckon they are going to cause lots of damage in the next three months, and potentially go a long way.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/758806/if-tom-mitchell-is-being-managed-out-of-a-game-of-football-then

[one-eyed]

AFL Power Rankings: Round 9

8. RICHMOND (5-4, 117.5%)

Last week’s ranking: 8

Tick, tick, tick. Three weeks in a row Richmond has looked impressive, first easily accounting for West Coast, then having it relatively simple against Collingwood and Hawthorn. It feels as if the Magpies and Hawks are sliding, so maybe those wins aren’t as good as they would’ve been a month ago, but you can’t criticise the Tigers for that. Assuming they get past an ailing Essendon - though the last time the Bombers copped this much criticism all week, they stormed home to win - things get a lot tougher for Damien Hardwick’s men, with Sydney, Port Adelaide, Carlton and Geelong on the docket. That's four games against the teams around them - four games that will dictate the pecking order as we head towards the season’s final months.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2022-power-rankings-after-round-9-analysis-every-club-ranked-reaction-highlights-wrap-ladder-top-eight-predictions/news-story/284d4a82c0d4811a3df8a9e914c95e26

[the claw]

Have not beaten a team currently in the 8 and the last three Hawthorn,Collingwood and WCE will not make the 8 imo.
Basing the so called turn around on those three games is fraught with danger imo.

Looking at the draw we should make finals but winning it all. I don't think so. Then what for 2023?

[Tigeritis™©®]

Have not beaten a team currently in the 8 and the last three Hawthorn,Collingwood and WCE will not make the 8 imo.
Basing the so called turn around on those three games is fraught with danger imo.

Looking at the draw we should make finals but winning it all. I don't think so. Then what for 2023?

Keep building and managing the list so as to keep it competitive and possibly challenge again.

[Andyy]

Have not beaten a team currently in the 8 and the last three Hawthorn,Collingwood and WCE will not make the 8 imo.
Basing the so called turn around on those three games is fraught with danger imo.

Looking at the draw we should make finals but winning it all. I don't think so. Then what for 2023?

Top 8 teams. Well we were in front of both Carlton and Saints in the last quarter. Only Dees beat us comprehensively (scoreboard flattered us).

Time will tell.

[lamington]

For the younger brigade, say gibcus and mrj, making finals would be invaluable. I doubt we would have won 2017 if we didn’t experience 2013-15. I would also like to see if short is viable in the midfield during finals as well (praying he doesn’t pull a Baker post gws game) and that alone would give us good momentum for 2023 even if we get smashed in an EF

[mightytiges]

If we get past Essendon first (don't deserve finals if we lose to them) and are 6-4, then the next 4 matches against sides also vying for the top 4/top 8 will be a decent guide and test for where we are at - Swans, Port, Blues and Cats. Win at least 3 and top 4 is a realistic shot; win 2 and it's the lower top 8; win 1 or less and we'll be struggling to scrape in and just be making up the numbers.

[one-eyed]

Win 4 in a row yet go backwards in Foxsports' power rankings .


AFL Power Rankings after Round 10

Max Laughton
Foxsports
24 May 2022

9. RICHMOND (6-4, 120.4%)

Last week’s ranking: 8

It may not have the top-four stakes of Melbourne-Fremantle, nor the rivalry of Collingwood-Carlton, but the game we’re most keen to see this weekend is Richmond-Sydney on Friday night. We need to know if this four-game Tigers winning streak is actually them figuring things out, and getting to the level we thought they could reach pre-season, or if it’s them beating up on poor opposition (they’ve beaten 18th, 16th, 13th and 10th). The Swans in their current form aren’t a top four side but a solid fifth-to-eighth bunch, making this a perfect next step, though being without Tom Lynch will make it more difficult.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2022-power-rankings-after-round-10-analysis-every-club-ranked-reaction-highlights-wrap-ladder-top-eight/news-story/8f43cd5bafae16301ed04b29ba0411c9

[FooffooValve]

Looking at the rest of the season, I can only give us 4 definite wins on current form. We are going to need to win the next 2 against Port and Carlton to be any kind of chance of sneaking into the 8.

[Fluffy Tiger]

Looking at the rest of the season, I can only give us 4 definite wins on current form. We are going to need to win the next 2 against Port and Carlton to be any kind of chance of sneaking into the 8.

Yep I count 4 definate wins too but I don't see any definate losses  We are a chance in every game from here on. . So we could be anywhere from 4-7 to 11-0 from here on.  Let's hope the the later.

[Tiger Khosh]

Ahhh man rather than sitting 6th or 7th and a game clear in the eight heading into the bye, we instead finish the round off 9th. Not the end of the world looking at the big picture of our season but defs a downer.