Last Season:
Not even Tigers fans could have predicted their team would rise from nothing to win the 2017 premiership in one of the most dominant finals performances we have ever seen in recent years.
After their round 16 hiccup when they lost to the Saints by 67 points, the Tigers went on to win nine of their next 10 matches. Like we have seen so many times in the past, you do not have to be the best team all season, only when it counts. And Richmond went on some kind of surge that powered them through the finals and ended a 37-year premiership drought.
Richmond became the best pressure side in the competition, and later in the year, starting scoring off that fanatical pressure. They created stoppages, they created turnovers and they dominated territory.
Dustin Martin ascended himself as the apex player of the competition, winning the Brownlow Medal with a record breaking 36 votes. He added a Norm Smith medal and premiership medal, becoming the first player to ever pull off such a feat in one year. Leigh Matthews described his season as the best ever put together.
Off Season grade:
In: Jack Higgins (Pick 17), Callum Coleman-Jones (Pick 20), Noah Balta (Pick 25), Patrick Naish (Pick 34), Benjamin Miller (Pick 63), Liam Baker
Out: Ivan Maric, Chris Yarran, Steven Morris, Todd Elton, Taylor Hunt, Ben Lennon, Jake Batchelor, Ben Griffiths
Off season grade: C
There is not much to like or dislike here. The Tigers, like many teams, were quiet during the off season. They did most of their work last year, adding premiership players Dion Prestia, Toby Nankervis and Josh Caddy.
The Tigers added youth and did well to come away with three top 25 picks. This shows that they have an eye for the future and are not going all in with their list.
Their first-round pick, Jack Higgins, is reportedly as good as any player in the draft, but we are not likely to see him until halfway through the season according to a recent interview with Damien Hardwick.
Defining period:
Richmond only play two of the top six sides of 2017 twice, in Adelaide and Geelong. They play six of their first seven games at the MCG and only leave Melbourne once in the opening eight rounds. They also play four of their last five games at the MCG.
There is however a brutal stretch during the middle of the season for the reigning premiers. They play Port Adelaide, Geelong, Sydney, Adelaide and GWS in successive weeks, which is as tough as it gets and will really test out this Tigers outfit. We will learn if they are the real deal or not in 2018 during this stretch.
Champion Data Suggests…
The Tigers’ list profile sees them rank 12th in age and 10th for experience. They have 16 players aged between 25-29, the peak years, which ranks equal third in the competition.
The midfield is the strength for the Tigers, ranking eighth in quality. This group has four players who were selected in the top 10 of their original drafts – Trent Cotchin (pick two), Martin (three), Caddy (seven) and Prestia (nine).
The domino effect of the Prestia and Caddy trades cannot be underestimated. The premiership drought is now over but the Tigers still acquired three pricks in the top 25 in the most recent draft. With these picks they grabbed Higgins who recorded the best numbers ever recorded as a junior, and two talls in Callum Coleman-Jones and Noah Balta.
The short-term and long term suddenly look exciting for the Tigers. Hats off to the recruiters. It was a premiership team built on top end talent and significant role players who had the attributes to implement a successful game plan.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths
The Tigers made the MCG their own last year. It lost two games at the home of football, one after the siren against the Dockers and the other against Sydney by nine points.
The MCG is wider then most grounds and the pockets and flanks are deeper. Teams find it harder to press at the MCG, but not these Tigers. Their small, fast playing group were perfectly suited to the wide expanses of the MCG. Their one-wood is their forward press and pressure, which they perfected at the 'G.
Youngsters Dan Butler, Daniel Rioli and Jason Castagna swarm in packs at ground level inside 50, and compliment Jack Riewoldt’s aerial presence perfectly. This combination generated some big scores in the second half of 2017.
Their back six led by Alex Rance built real synergy together and were nearly impossible to score against. Brandon Ellis, Bachar Houli and Nick Vlastuin became premier half backs, while Dylan Grimes and David Astbury were rock solid all year.
Their top five players are as good as any, which has been the case for some time. Perhaps more importantly, their bottom six players give them something every week. This improvement from their role players is what gave them their hard-nosed identity in 2017 and turned them into a powerhouse.
Weaknesses
The hunters become the hunted. A host of premiership sides have come out the next season and not possessed the same hunger they did in the previous season. You do not have to date too far back to see that – woof woof.
A big challenge for these Tigers is to come out with the same ruthless intensity that earned them their stripes in 2017. That is the biggest challenge that lays in front of them and they need their role players to come out with the same passion they showed in the 2017 finals.
Scoring was an issue for Richmond for the first half of 2017, and teams will be applying twice as much pressure on them now that they have a target on their back. Can the small forwards continue providing goal kicking power up forward? Can they maintain their relentless pressure on defenders that ignites their game-plan? Does the back six hold up? Can Prestia stay healthy?
There are few question marks over the Tigers, but hunger and health are the two potential vulnerabilities in Richmond defending football's holy grail.
Prediction:
2nd
The Tigers took the high-pressure game plan to new heights in 2017 and that was the backbone to their premiership flag. How they respond to their drought-breaking win is potentially the most interesting headline going into the 2018 season.
All reports are that these Tigers have returned from the off season as invested as they were last year. It is one of the all-time clichés from premiership sides, but when this team says they are motivated, you feel like it means something.
Led by Hardwick, Martin, Cotchin, Rance and Riewoldt, Richmond should be a force to be reckoned with again. If their JLT series is anything to go by, they are back better than ever with massive thumpings over Essendon and North Melbourne. With little to no off-season surgeries and injuries, the yellow and black are as primed as any premiership side before them to go back-to-back.
Previous: Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast Suns, Carlton, North Melbourne, Fremantle, Collingwood, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs, Melbourne, Essendon, Port Adelaide, West Coast, Sydney, Geelong, GWS, Adelaide
