AFL flag windowsMax Laughton
Fox Sports
November 13th, 2023RICHMOND8th oldest and 11th most experienced list entering 2024
- Finished 13th in 2023 (10-12-1)The Tigers are entering that dangerous area you don’t want to live in as an AFL club - the middle ground. After a near-miss of a 2022 season, you could understand why they made a win-now move in the ensuing trade period; yet injuries and father time ensured the additions of Hopper and Taranto weren’t enough to squeeze one last flag out of the dynasty. The problem is now they have to pay for those moves with a lack of draft capital, which will slow what looks like an inevitable rebuild. Keep in mind this group won six of seven games around the bye last season; assuming Lynch gets back to full strength, it’s hard to imagine Richmond being truly bad in 2024 (though they’ll be a popular pick to slide and that’s totally understandable, because someone has to join the Roos and Eagles in the bottom four and who else would it be?). But it’s time to add young talent to regenerate, and outside of the busy 2021 draft, just one top-25 pick they’ve made since 2017 remains on their list (Noah Balta). You can’t abandon that many drafts without some pain; and it’s hard to pick when they’ll contend for a flag again when you can’t see who exactly they’re building around.
Premiership window: 2027-30
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2023-premiership-window-for-every-team-before-2024-season-analysis-flag-contenders-rebuild-list-profiles-age-experience/news-story/e607149ceb2491630d5e4b6da032c9fe
