Preseason scratch match: Richmond vs Essendon

[Tigeritis™©®]

It looks like we are going to persist with hinging our ruck hopes on Nankervis (1 mark) which I think is a terrible call and I will be proven correct again this year because I suspect he'll be even worse this year than he was last year. 

Making Balta a roaming ruckman with his agility, speed and marking ability would have been the smarter more obvious option for us whilst Nankervis transitions to life outside of playing footy and he could help the young rucks coming through instead, an opportunity lost IMO.

I'm really hoping  Gibcus can find his mojo again and relearn the basics of defensive positioning and tactics because he was absolutely lost.

I'm not fussed at all hopefully we lose all our practice matches and learn more about ourselves and lets just concentrate on humiliating, ruining and smashing the cheats round 1 

[one-eyed]

Club takeaways

Jack Jovanovski, Ben Cotton and Catherine Healey
Fox Sports
February 22nd, 2026

Foxfooty.com.au analyses what we learned about all 18 teams from the match simulations.

RICHMOND

Result: 50-point loss to Essendon (68-118)

What we learned:

Well, for starters — even though it’s an unofficial practice match — after looking like a smooth-moving half-back ball movement machine, the Tigers were completely shut down after quarter-time on Friday.

The Bombers cut off Richmond’s switch avenues out of defence and pressured it into mistakes, with a seven-goal-to-one Essendon second quarter blowing the game wide open.

But it’s hard to take away anything absolutely concrete from the result, with both sides resting most of their stars after half-time.

But Sam Lalor was tantalising in the early stages, rising to mark inside 50, having drifted forward from the centre ball-up — of which he attended plenty in the first half. The former No.1 pick was clean and comfortable in possession, and most importantly, he got through unscathed in what’s been a careful yet complete pre-season for the young star after hamstring issues hampered his rookie campaign.

Sam Grlj, the eighth overall pick last November, was arguably the most impressive Richmond youngster, exhibiting his daring dash and adept decision-making exiting defence. An accurate slicing kick into the corridor from defence was one of a handful of exciting acts, as well as a well-placed kick inside 50 late in the first term set up fellow top-10 pick Sam Cumming’s first unofficial Richmond goal.

Cumming, meanwhile, got better as the game went on, benefitting from more centre ball-up attendances later in proceedings once the Tigers’ stars sat out.

Jack Ross, recently elevated into the club’s leadership group for the first time, was a consistent cool head out at Tullamarine and one of the Tiges’ better players on the day.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-match-sims-scores-results-2026-what-we-learned-about-every-club-after-match-simulation-practice-games-analysis-latest-news/news-story/665d780dcd0c8f93f76db99722a3e5bd

[one-eyed]

PRESSURE

HB Meyers
themongrelpunt.com
February 21, 2026

The Tigers were up and about in the first quarter, and the Bombers were being blown away on the outside.

Players like Rhyan Mansel, Taj Hotton, and Sam Lalor were torching them.

The quarter-time break rolled around, and the Bombers decided to do something about it. They pushed both their half-backs and half-forwards up the ground, congested the space between the arcs, and made the Tigers work for their possessions.

And they could not handle… PRESSURE!

This will be something Adem Yze will need to address, and he is likely to start having his cubs attempting to take the game on switching the footy into the middle, because the Tigers were unable to get past the bigger-bodied Bombers, and turned it over far too much when the squeeze was on.

So yes, not a bad thing for the Bombers at all, but definitely something for the Tigers to look at as players like Hugo Ralphsmith (who tackled well), Jack Ross, Steely Green, and James Trezise, all went missing when the momentum swung in the Bombers’ favour.

Full match sim review: https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2026/2026/02/21/2026-match-sim-essendon-v-richmond/

[Andyy]

Mansell? Really?

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Mansell? Really?

They let Mansell have the ball as he just turned it over. Competes fiercely but gee whiz he is a turnover merchant

[Andyy]

Mansell? Really?

They let Mansell have the ball as he just turned it over. Competes fiercely but gee whiz he is a turnover merchant

he's a kmart king for me