Richmond key defender Ben Miller has spotlighted the growth of the Tigers' young core for their surprising five-win 2025 campaign, hoping he can continue his development as one of the club's more important defensive pillars for 2026.
Miller has struggled with consistency throughout his AFL journey, taking four seasons to debut after being selected 63rd overall in the 2017 National Draft, and then another three to play at least 20 games in a season.
However, he has developed to become one of Richmond's more important figures in their defensive 50, working in tandem with veterans Nathan Broad and Nick Vlastuin. The 26-year-old featured in all 23 games this season and averaged a career-high 12.4 disposals and 6.1 marks, 1.8 of which were intercepts.
He also led the Tigers in disposal efficiency, with 85.7 per cent of his possessions being effective.
Only four other defenders in the AFL average more one-on-one defensive contests than Miller's 3.1 per game: Darcy Moore (3.4), Sam Taylor (3.3), Harry Edwards (3.1) and Mac Andrew (3.1).
It highlights the Tigers' immense reliance on Miller and how he has thrived in the role, losing just 26.8 per cent of those contests, which is notably better than Mac Andrew's success rate.
In an interview with Richmond Media, Miller spoke of his growth over the last 24 months.
"It was a bit of a similar season to last year for myself. I took a lot of positives coming from my first full season last year and was lucky enough to play another full season this year," Miller said.
"The biggest thing for me last year was working in that consistency, and I feel like I had good growth in that this year. There was certainly still weeks where I could have been better, so it's another big focus going into next year."
Miller conceded the group needs to improve their ability to bring intensity across full games for 2026, but believes the games given to young players will fast-track the development of their midfield and forward lines.
"The belief within the group and people putting us down for no wins throughout the year, that never really set in on anyone," Miller said.
"We all believed that we go out there week in and week out to win, and we believed we are good enough to beat every team out there.
"Sometimes it just comes down to the four-quarter effort, which I think we lacked a little bit this year. We played reasonable footy for three quarters there, but it was always one quarter throughout every game that got away from us.
"We had nine debutants this year, so getting more games into them and fast-tracking them as quickly as we can, I think every line should have good confidence in what they can gain."
If there's any silver linings from an overall dour year for the Tigers, it was the consistency from their backline. Despite conceding 55.7 inside 50s per game (rank 16th), Richmond never lost by triple digits this season and notably had a better marks conceded per inside 50 rate than Melbourne and St Kilda.
"We were the most unchanged line," Miller said.
"We liked to think that we gelled really well back there together as a back six, back seven. We would only have one change now and then, but we have a good feeling of how each other like to play and each other's strengths and weaknesses."
