Richmond are struggling, but we won’t see them fall into a holeNathan Buckley
SEN
May 1, 2023“From a difference of position with North and West Coast, Richmond have got a lot of players out.
“They’ve got one win, one draw, five losses - which is not where they would have seen themselves.
“But you can see with Richmond that and especially with the way that their coach communicates that there's still a lot of fight in them.
“He's not giving up on anything and they're going to bite, scratch and work for anything that they can get
“There's ownership of their situation there, there's an acknowledgement of the things that are going to be tough for them.
“But, what I sense in those words in that energy in the way that he's carrying himself is we won't see Richmond ever fall into a North Melbourne or a West Coast situation.
“I just think that they've got that many young players in the side at the moment, Richmond.
“They've got a couple back which help them, (Ivan) Soldo coming back in stiffens them up, but it's still his first game back.
“When (Tom) Lynch comes back in the side … Mitch Lewis for Hawthorn made Hawthorn look entirely different.
“So I think Lynch for Richmond makes that difference for them.
“I've got no doubt that they thought that they were adding (with the Taranto and Hopper trades) to see whether Cotchin, Riewoldt and potentially Lynch and Martin could be a part of some short term success.
“But I also believe that Taranto and Hopper, they see as players that are going to be part of their midfield through the next dip and then as it comes back.
“Whether that timing's right, you can only ever really judge that in retrospect.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/04/30/the-buck-stops-here-the-mindset-to-winning-close-games-dominant-key-forwards/