Taj Hotton to debut this week [merged]

[one-eyed]

Surprising the Hotton family


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyy7g4GAoo

[the claw]

Ah one of Clawski's kids to debut. Go get em son please avoid the curse and just stay healthy.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Did you just speak in the 3rd person?

[Diocletian]

Did you just speak in the 3rd person?

 

He should start posting on PRE #clawskidays

[camboon]

So funny , I’m sure we will all claim Hotton as our own if he he goes ok 

[Simonator]

He was never on my radar watching the draft because of his injury.
Was surprised by the pick, but intrigued so watched some footage read up on him etc and thought he could be another Bolton best case scenario. Watching his vfl games he has much more potential than that. I think he has no ceiling, has so many attributes that often aren’t combined. Evasiveness, great skills, marking and leap, IQ, vision, ability to hit scoreboard, physical (8 tackles on the weekend) as far as I can see his only weakness is his size and even then he looks to have bulked up quite a bit just in this year alone.

Super bullish on Hotton

[one-eyed]

Tigers excited to unleash 'special talent' for AFL debut

By AAP
11 July 2025

RICHMOND coach Adem Yze has high hopes for "special talent" Taj Hotton as the first-round draft pick prepares to make his AFL debut.

After overcoming an ACL rupture suffered last year before he arrived at Punt Rd, the 18-year-old will begin his career at the MCG on Saturday night when the rebuilding Tigers face injury-hit Essendon.

Yze joined Hotton to surprise his family at their home to let them know he would finally make the step up to AFL.

Hotton is the son of former Carlton and Collingwood player Trent, who played 78 games between 1994 and 2002.

He collected 25 touches and kicked a goal against the Northern Bullants in the VFL last week

"He's just a pure forward, so we can play him at either line," Yze told reporters of Hotton on Friday.

"He can go deep, he can play a high-forward role.

"Then he has pinch hit in the midfield in the VFL the last couple of weeks, so we might see him around the ball late in the game as well.

"He's a special talent, when you've got the ability to jump and mark like he does and then at ground level do things, it's really hard to coach.

"It's the reason he went so high in the draft and the reason we rated him so highly going into the draft."

Hotton was one of six players Richmond secured in the first round of last year's draft in an attempt to supercharge its rebuild following the premiership era under Damien Hardwick between 2017 and 2020.

"Then there's his work ethic, to get where he (Hotton) is today to be ready to play at AFL level after three VFL games is a credit to him," Yze said.

"The spotlight is going to be on him like it was on (No.1 draft pick) Sammy (Lalor) earlier in the year and like it has been for all our first-round picks."

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1361434/richmond-tigers-excited-to-unleash-special-talent-taj-hotton-for-afl-debut

[Tigeritis™©®]

Have great expectations for this kid.

I'm expecting to see a great career at the RFC.

[one-eyed]

Hotton's stats in his debut game

10 disposals (6k, 4h, 6c, 5u, 50% eff.)
3 marks
3 tackles
1 clearance
3 inside 50s
218m gained
3 intercepts
3 score involvements
1 goal
56% gametime

[Simonator]

56% game time… pretty good effort from the kid.

Hope he can roll through the middle a bit in a few weeks

[MintOnLamb]

Great stuff from Taj.

How should he be managed?

Play every game?
Limited time?

[WilliamPowell]

Great stuff from Taj.

How should he be managed?

Play every game?
Limited time?

Personally,  I've got no doubt he will play the remainder of the season on managed minutes for probably next week, then it's away we go

Think we saw enough to know we've got a really good one in young Taj

[the claw]

reckon i did pretty well this draft not that it was hard to do. the draft was loaded with talent and deep.
on the day i went.

Was a big wrap for Lalor and Draper at pick 1.Have always favored bigger bodied mids though but Draper sure was tempting from a list need perspective. Super quick mid both off the mark and top end, and a real ability to just float from inside a contest to outside it. Ideal type to play alongside the slower Hopper and Taranto.But always have been a sucker for the bigger bodied mids over smaller ones.

 Smillie i had us taking well before the draft at pick 1 so did a lot of others. Yep he slid but he was a monty at 7 imo and thats where i had him.
Even went as far to call him a possible generational player at one stage bit over the top but hey even im allowed to get excited now and again.

One i considered here was Travaglia to offset the loss of Rioli. But there was two kids i thought we could take later in the draft that would give us a good h/b wing option in Clarke and Harrison Oliver who i really liked and was filthy GWS nabbed him at 19 just two picks in front of  our pick 21.

Had allen or Reid at 12 and Hotton at 14. Had stated several times that i thought Hotton would be a good Bolton replacement a better mid though. Allen was a big quick sort of hybrid a h/b/mid again meeting list short falls in both roles and Reid another smart mid.
As it was we took Hotton  at 12 so was pleased. We used 14 on Faull and of course Allen and Reid were gone by our next pick. One i liked here from a list point of view having taken three mids already was Lindsay we still need classy outside running players and he was an ideal long term wing solution.he went at 11 one pick before ours.

We actually bid on Kako at 13 so we were obviously prepared to forgo Faull here knowing there would be an abundance of talls from pick 20 onwards.

We took Trainor at 21 i wanted Armstrong here the need was for kpf more than anything. Again i posted wanting Armstrong top 10 in the draft at one stage but i became a strong advocate of waiting until around pick 20 to start grabbing talls because every man and his dog knew that was where they were going to be taken.
Will say i had no problem with us taking Trainor as  i thought he was the best tall defender in the draft i just did not think we had a big need for anymore tall defenders prefering to load up with Forwards from here.He was also touted a top 10 pick and would not be out of place if taken there it shows just how strong and even this draft was.

Clearly i wanted Armstrong at 23 and to round it out i Prefered Shanahan at our last pick at pick 28.
I will also say i was a big advocate of useing more picks in this draft and cutting harder into the list.
As it was we traded back in to the draft when Algar was still there so late and there were kids there i really liked Boxshall Clarke, Davis to name a few who went after we bailed out at 28.

On Trainor the reason i Did not consider him  because i felt we had plenty of kpds although i rated him a better defender than Tarau who was a bit of a bolter. I had Armstrong at 9 at one stage but was certain most of the talls would get to  pick 20. I think everyone knew the talls would last to around this point.

There ya go laugh if ya want its what you expect from petty people around here. i don't give a stuff.

It was a deep draft full of talented players and just about anyone with half a brain was going to get a lot of picks right.

I don't think a lot of people had Hotton going as early as he did but i had him at 14 so stupidly claimed him as one of my picks some people are petty and pathetic in here.

A lot of little idiot syndrome goes on around here.

[Damo]

A lot of little idiot syndrome goes on around here.

Lot of narcissism as well

[camboon]

What’s about delusional  self admiration and  over indulgent  bath water drinking. Is there any of  that going on around here ?