Pass mark for 2026?

[one-eyed]

Early 2026 verdict on every club

Will Faulkner
Fox Sports
October 24th, 2025

RICHMOND — BOTTOM SIX

Almost no one predicted Richmond would finish 2025 with just five wins, and even with another year of development, a finals tilt still feels unlikely in 2026. If Adem Yze’s side can again separate themselves from West Coast and remain on pace with North Melbourne, the season will be viewed as a success — unless the Kangaroos unexpectedly fall apart. Delisted Cat Patrick Retschko arrived via an unprecedented trade as their sole off-season addition, but with picks 3 and 4 in this year’s draft, the Tigers are well placed to inject more elite youth and set their sights on a more serious surge in 2027.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2025-early-verdict-on-every-afl-clubs-2026-chances-premiership-contenders-finals-hopefuls-bottom-six-predictions-who-will-rise-and-fall-analysis-latest-news/news-story/eda69f438cc60cab3f047afd49151396

[Tiger Khosh]

Another 4-6 wins as long as we are getting plenty of experience into the cubs would be a good result.

[Andyy]

Bottom 6 for sure.

Wouldn't be surprised if we finish bottom 2-4 really.

Goal needs to be sorting out the S&C of our players, getting games into those kids. You want to see guys like Faull, Armstrong, Lalor, Hotton, Alger playing 15+ games. Smillie debut and play half the year or more etc. Sims get a big stronger and more games.

Time to transition away from some of the older guys.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

We cannot afford to be winning less than 5 games next year, 5 is bare minimum and 7-8 should be the mid point.

We are going to shed significant experience from end of 2026 and 2027, we will need to start replacing it this time next year.
Getting up and over 6 wins will seperate us as a potential destination from Roos, Weagles, Demons, Bombers and perhaps even Carlton to go after prospects that might not be stars but can backfill Lynch, Meatie, Broad and then build for a near future without Vlas, Nank and Shorty.

A version of what the Saints have done without the recklessness of spending.

If we could jag 8 wins - doable but a stretch - then I could see us making a real play for Butters, particularly if the Pies fall off a cliff and the Dogs continue to stagnant.


A bottom 3 for a 3rd year in a row and we have no hope resigning us to the loserville status occupied by Roos and Eagles who are stuck in shitsville.
We will only get worse if that happens until these kids get over 60-80 games.

No thanks.

Next year is critical.

[camboon]

Winning games is part of building confidence and self belief in a young side so I always hope we win.
We could win more this year but injuries to senior players and we could win less.

[JP Tiger]

I'm not expecting us to have much of a year in '26.  While the Punt Rd Oval is being upgraded we face the prospect of training in temporary arrangements, possibly at the old VFL park site.  The fact that we still haven't secured some solid arrangements for training & our administration centre for '26 paints a picture of disruption & dissatisfaction.  For the whole year we are basically 'homeless' & faced with selling off a home game or two during the season.  I think the disruption of our whole operation will be huge & it will be seen in our win/loss record.   

It's for this reason that I don't think we should rate our season on the number of wins, but rather on some more ephemeral metrics.  How we handle our stocks of young talent is more important than how many wins we get.  We could finish stone cold motherless last but still have a fantastic season in so many ways.  Player development & getting plenty of games into our youth makes '26 an important & exciting year for the club, let's just ignore the win/loss column for the year.   

I'm not disheartened by the disruptions to our operation, but rather looking forward to the new base we are going to build.  There will be chaos, but from chaos comes opportunity!          

[tdy]

Could be a bad year but then I don't expect 0 games like inside last year. If we get 4+ and very few injuries to kids who get games experience I'm happy. Avoiding injuries is the key to young kids.

[WilliamPowell]

I'm not expecting us to have much of a year in '26.  While the Punt Rd Oval is being upgraded we face the prospect of training in temporary arrangements, possibly at the old VFL park site.  The fact that we still haven't secured some solid arrangements for training & our administration centre for '26 paints a picture of disruption & dissatisfaction.  For the whole year we are basically 'homeless' & faced with selling off a home game or two during the season.  I think the disruption of our whole operation will be huge & it will be seen in our win/loss record.   

It's for this reason that I don't think we should rate our season on the number of wins, but rather on some more ephemeral metrics.  How we handle our stocks of young talent is more important than how many wins we get.  We could finish stone cold motherless last but still have a fantastic season in so many ways.  Player development & getting plenty of games into our youth makes '26 an important & exciting year for the club, let's just ignore the win/loss column for the year.   

I'm not disheartened by the disruptions to our operation, but rather looking forward to the new base we are going to build.  There will be chaos, but from chaos comes opportunity!          

I'm confused by your comment around "our administrative centre for 2026". All office staff are in offices in Wellington Parade

All staff get together once a week in the MR centre for lunch.

Footy dept will remain in their current offices as we will be training at PRO for most of 2026.

Reconfiguration of the oval is not due to start until after the 2026 season. It will impact the women's program more than the men's

[the claw]

Not even gunna mention wins it has nothing to do with improvement next year. We could actually play better footy show a real system and kids will develop nicely and only win a game or two.

[Damo]

Not even gunna mention wins it has nothing to do with improvement next year. We could actually play better footy show a real system and kids will develop nicely and only win a game or two.

There will be a lot of rubbish teams next year

1-2 wins would be a fail

[the claw]

Not even gunna mention wins it has nothing to do with improvement next year. We could actually play better footy show a real system and kids will develop nicely and only win a game or two.

There will be a lot of rubbish teams next year

1-2 wins would be a fail

Na.

[Andyy]

3-4 minimum for me

[WilliamPowell]

We will get another soft draw

Expecting 5- 8 wins 

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Not even gunna mention wins it has nothing to do with improvement next year. We could actually play better footy show a real system and kids will develop nicely and only win a game or two.

If you want to attract mature talent it is very important.
Saints picked up 4 and should have 5 on the back of 9 wins with 4 very narrow and unconvincing wins over bottom 4 teams.
I agree the game plan should be key but why couldn’t we do both 

[the claw]

What part of of being in the very early stages of rebuild do people not understand.

We are not in the game of attracting big name players for three or more years yet.
What we are about or should be about is still getting our hands on as many good kids as we can while the expectations are rightly very low. When we get enough of those kids to 80 odd  games which won't happen overnight as some seem to think, we can then start filling the gaps like we did with Presia Nankervis Caddy Lynch.

People won't have to worry about players wanting to come to us if we have recruited well. They will fall over themselves to come to a a big club with a huge fan base that can fill the mcg most weeks. We are not North Melbourne.