AFL Report Card - Round 11Will Faulkner, Catherine Healey, Ben Cotton and Jack Jovanovski
Fox Sports
May 27th, 2025RICHMONDThe extremely young Tigers made things difficult for the Bombers on Friday night but eventually fell away after three-quarter-time. Missing Noah Balta and Jayden Short in defence hurt in terms of missing composure and class in the defensive 50, but for a large portion of the night, Richmond was able to worry Essendon with its pressure. A widely inexperienced Faull-Sims-Trainor key forward line in the absence of Tom Lynch meant the connection from midfield to forward was inconsistent at best and gross at worst, with Adem Yze fielding 14 players with less than 50 games for Dreamtime at the ‘G.
In the votesSam Banks continues to provide evidence he’s the long-term answer to Richmond’s Daniel Rioli void; consistently the preferred option exiting the defensive half. He recorded 29 disposals, eight marks, 608 metres gained and five intercepts, using his dash to kickstart chains. Tom Brown, too, was impressive again with 21 disposals, four marks and an equal-team-high six score involvements from the backline. Tim Taranto and Hugo Ralphsmith each kicked two goals from the midfield, while Rhyan Mansell was again potent with a goal from three scoring shots and an equal-team-high six score involvements.
Room for improvementThe Tigers were out-possessed 441-333 on the night, lost the clearance battle 45-23 and were -20 for contested possessions and -7 for inside-50s. It’s no secret they were beaten around the ball and for territory, but without skipper Toby Nankervis asserting his dominance in the middle — instead Samson Ryan, in his second game of the year, did his best to halve contests against Todd Goldstein — and Balta absent in key defence, Richmond did a lot well and made the Dons sweat.
Grade
C-
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