How the Richmond Football Club Built an AFL Dynasty

a nervous but excited brandon ellis stands before his richmond teammates it's the build up to the 2017 season and the tigers find themselves on the sunshine coast on the eve of a gruelling five-day preseason camp designed to put them in the best possible shape to bounce back from a disastrous 2016. head coach damien hardwick has decided to introduce a program known as the triple h sessions over the course of the season richmond players and staff will be given the chance to stand in front of the group and share three aspects of their personal life a hero a hardship and a highlight alice is the first to go i wrote it all down i couldn't wait to share but i was so nervous because no one knew my story he later reflected after hearing about the hardships endured by alice his father and family members the rest of the playing group rose to applaud and embrace him by the end people were crying i felt like i became a new person and i just felt so much closer to the group so accepted it was massive for me massive it's like i can finally be who i want to be on the eve of that 2017 season no one in the football industry would have predicted richmond would go on to win three of the next four premierships but internally a rejuvenated hardwick the arrival of three key players and the growing sense of connection between the team had the club buzzing this video is the story of how the club created both a truly unique team that would deliver them a dynasty and the environment that allowed them to thrive the first pieces of the puzzle fell into place back in 2006 when the tigers then coached by terry wallace selected jack revolt with pick 13 and shane edwards at 26. after richmond slumped down the ladder during a dismal 2007 the pair were joined by exciting talents in midfielder and number two draft pick tranchotchen and under 18 all australian back pocket alex rants 2008 showed promise edwards put in the first of many a standout dreamtime performances to earn his first ever brownlow vote rewalked sure to flash the potential in a five goal performance against west coast and while rants developed in the vfl cochin joined the first kick first gold club in round eight on a rainy day against the cats ultimately the tigers would finish the season and ninth missing finals by just two points but an air of optimism had been restored at punt road it didn't last long ben cousins was picked up in the preseason draft only to tear a hamstring in an 83 point round one lost carlton by june the tigers were two and eight wallace was inevitably sacked and just months later ongoing health problems forced ceo stephen wright to stand down the board selected former 244 game richmond player brendan gale is his replacement who immediately set out to improve the situation at tigerland i think it's fair to say richmond is not a big foot club at the moment i'm really motivated by the task ahead i know this club i believe in this club to return to their status as an afl giant the club set three long-term goals to achieve within the decade eradicate all their debt which stood at about four million australian dollars at the time reached 75 000 members an increase of at least 30 000 on their current tally and most ambitious of all win three premierships one of gail's first key responsibilities was the appointment of a new head coach the tigers looked approach talent from a more successful team and the decision came down to two of the league's most promising assistants hawthorne's damien hardwick and geelong's ken hinckley hardwick was appointed on august 25th giving him time to observe the team under caretaker jade rawlings before officially taking over for the 2010 season with the list and disarray and the impending arrival of two expansion clubs the 2009 draft presented the tigers with perhaps the only look at a top five pick they were going to get before a gift basket full of draft advantages were handed to gold coast and gws they did not miss and with pick 3 they selected none other than dustin martin and added david asprey to the list with pick 35 the players we've mentioned so far are often considered the core of richmond's premiership squad but it's interesting to note that they were brought together before hardwick had even coached the game it's telling then that the club's vision was able to encourage them to stick together through the years that followed as his time in charge began slowly hud would urge patience his team lost the first nine games of 2010 before a triumphant performance against port adelaide gave hardwick his first win as a senior coach the tigers finished second last but six wins in the back half of the season were enough to show signs richmond were moving in the right direction and so as the afl's new expansion began the tigers were faced with the difficult task of rebuilding the list at compromised drafts at the national draft they enjoyed mixed success rhys conker taken at pick 6 and jake batchelor at 30 in 2010 would leave via free agency into listing respectively in 2011 brandon ellis was taken at 15 and 2012 saw the tigers gain vic metro captain nick lost in a pick nine and camden macintosh picked 31 although second and third round picks tordelton and liam mcbean never developed into afl regulars throughout this period it was away from the national draft that the tigers did their best work trading for bashir hooli and sean greg in 2010 and then snaffling up dylan grimes in the pre-season draft after he had been overlooked the year before on the back of this recruiting the tigers had improved and 2012 showed early promise but alas it proved to be the same old story for tyx fans a goal after the siren from carmichael hunt in round 16 leaving richmond out of touch with the top eight 2013 however proved to be a different story and the 12-year drought was broken as richmond finally returned to the finals they finished fifth missing out on the top four by only two points but an embarrassing loss to a carlton side that had in fact finished ninth and was only there due to esthern's disqualification completely derailed the tiger train off field things were beginning to look up as the tigers had the league's second highest average attendance and began to eradicate their debt as the football department turned their attention to the draft the board made a landmark decision appointing american-born lawyer peggy o'neill as the first ever female president in afl vfl history what we're really trying to do is restore richmond to the position of significance in the afl and the broader community that it's enjoyed in the past and we want to see that as its future as well said o'neill of the club's long-term aspirations adding that she expected a premiership within the next few seasons 2014 was a roller coaster of emotions for richmond fans they started dismally the middle rounds were also dismal and with nine games to go they languished in 16th on just three wins the only remaining avenue to finals seemingly was to win all nine games and nine weeks later dustin martin had perhaps his first real dusty modern moment burning off ted richards to run into an open goal and kicked the tigers all the way to an elimination final at the adelaide oval in one of the most controversial moments in afl coin toss history trenchant won and elected to kick into the wind only to face a deficit of 42 points at quarter time having essentially played 10 elimination finals in a row their physically and emotionally exhausted tigers stood no chance against the red hot power in the off season the acquisition of premiership players would continue to come through unusual avenues the tigers missing the mark with their more prominent draft picks but succeeding in identifying talent elsewhere dan butler was taken a pic 67 in the national draft will jaden short ivan soldo kane lambert and jason castagna were all selected in the rookie draft 2015 saw a dramatically improved more consistent richmond again finishing in fifth heading into a third elimination final the abc perfectly captured the mood richmond simply has to win this game the fallout of damien hardwick goes another year without winning a final will be catastrophic and for a club that genuinely believes it's on the precipice of something special it would be an unfathomably disappointing end to a good season and unfathomably disappointing it was the chokers tag was well and truly justified in what was dubbed as a soft loss to north melbourne making it three elimination final losses in three years off the back of that failure the 2016 season was billed as do or die for richmond and hardclick there was also plenty of hype surrounding the recruitment of chris yaren from carlton and the drafting of daniel rioli with pick 15. nathan broad arrived as a mature age draft pick and jacob townsend was traded in to compensate for the perceived lack of midfield toughness that had been exploited by north melbourne the expectation and disappointment that surrounded yaren was mirrored by the season itself as richmond played woeful football to win just one of their first seven sam lloyds after the siren heroics against sydney had sparked a three-game winning streak but ultimately the tigers would slump to 13th and an off-season of speculation would begin on september 5 a rogue supporter group launched a challenge on the richmond board under the banner focus on football the group claimed the club was 35 years into a five-year rebuild and called for the resignation of several board members o'neil was adamant that no one would be standing down and the challenge was eventually withdrawn after the existing board revealed they had already accomplished one of the group's main goals bringing neil baum back to the club as general manager of football baum returned having just completed a very successful stint at geelong he assumed control of a restructured coaching team which would continue to be frontline by hardwick although three of his assistant coaches wouldn't escape the axe speaking on the decision to stand by hardwick in the face of intense media scrutiny o'neill said we can't let anger and finger-pointing define our future we must be in this together it's the only way the answer isn't to say it's too hard and not to tear down what we've built so that this club is faced with starting again new personnel were added in both the coaching and playing departments too tobin and curtis josh caddy and guillen prestia were all bought in through the trade period indicating the tigers believed they had a solid core that needed the finishing touches and an exciting shay bolton and the ready-made jack graham were drafted at picks 29 and 53. in the coaches box former teammate and renowned midfield coach blake carricella joined hardwick will justin leopage returned to richmond following his spell of alliance ben rudden who had kept his job completed hardwick's senior assistance for 2017. in the departures column bret deludio who had been arguably the tigers most important player of the past decade left to seek success elsewhere but the draft picks he brought in lessened the cost of caddy and prestia won and curvis was a steal in exchange for pick 46. away from the club hardwick was questioning what kind of leader he wanted to be considering how he could get the best out of a team he believed were good enough to experience success on-field changes were coupled with a new approach off the field and the triple h sessions were complemented by the arrival of high performance mindfulness coach emma murray at the club the season started promising with five wins in a row before a 76 point thrashing at the hands of adelaide had pundits questioning if the tiger's improvements were genuine more doubts followed when they suffered three consecutive losses by less than a goal with many critics suggesting richmond still suffered from an inability to win big games they managed to steady and finish third only to face too long in a qualifying final a team they hadn't beaten since 2006. with their high pressure game style and full display the tigers ran away with the match finally securing the finals win that had eluded them since 2001 and looking in a home prelim against uws as the giants ran out onto the mcg for that final they were greeted by the most one-sided crowd the afl has seen as over 90 000 packed into the ground the crowd savored every single moment as daniel riolli and dustin martin powered the tigers into their first grand final since 1982 just two days later martin who had recently signed a seven-year deal to stay at richmond would win the brownlow medal with a record vote telly while the tigers stars were shining it was perhaps their lesser known players that had made all the difference we'll dive deeper into richmond's off-field tactics in one of our next videos where players like castanera and butler had shown an incredible ability to simply play their role within the team system in another example of unorthodox recruiting paying off vfl best and fairest winner jacob townsend came into the team in the last two rounds kicked 11 goals in two games and then played as a defensive forward the tigers entered the 2017 grand finals underdocks adelaide got the better start but a four goal to zero second quarter rallied the tigers who controlled the rest of the match to win by 48 points and sealed the club's first premiership in 37 years dustin martin became the first player to win a brownlow premiership and norm smith in the same season it was a journey 11 years in the making but the tigers weren't on yet noah bolger arrived at the club with pick 25 during a quiet offseason richmond then went to 18 and four their sound off-field position reinforced by the tiger army making the club the first to have over a hundred thousand members jack riewoldt won a third coleman and the tigers dominated the season to finish two games clear on top and looked set to go back to back before completely capitulating to collingwood in a preliminary final loss [Music] that off-season they added liam baker with pick 18 in the rookie draft and tom lynch through free agency lynch proved to be a key addition carrying the tigers through an injury-riddled start to 2019 to reach the buy at 7-6 meanwhile the injured sean grigg retired clearing a spot on the list that allowed richmond to select marlon pickett at the mid-season draft returning from the by they didn't lose a game for the rest of the year as pickup became the first player to debut in an afl vfi grand final since 1952 and the tigers fled into gws to claim another premiership even through this time however there were those who doubted the tiger's prowess attributing their success to extended stretches of games at the mcg and coming up against interstate teams in their grand final wins 2020 gave them an opportunity to prove they could beat anyone anywhere highlighted by their preliminary final win against port and defeating geelong in the first grand final away from the mcg since 1991 the first ever outside of victoria this also completed the trio of goals gail had set out for the clubs years earlier [Music] 2013 14 and 15 had shown the club was on the right track a football club doesn't meet the finals three years in a row by coincidence let alone finished fifth twice richmond carried over 30 years worth of baggage that doesn't simply go away just because you've recruited some good players or you have a good coach it was the rock solid foundation the club had built off field that allowed them to weather the storm of 2016. peggy and brendan having the conviction to stand by their plan when the easiest thing to do would have been to give in to the mentality that this was just richmond being richmond the plan had failed once more and they needed to try again what brendan damien peggy neil and trent were able to achieve both on and off field is to redefine the image of the richmond football club in those dark years blowing leads or getting pumped by 157 points by the cats are what you would have considered typical richmond performances now in his press conferences hardwick has redefined subpar performances as not the way we want to play or not a richmond game as the club turns their attention to continuing their success through the coming season their 2021 membership campaign perfectly captures everything they have achieved the staff the players and most importantly the fans are proud to be richmond once again [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Footy A2Z

Views: 26,949

Rating: 4.9354262 out of 5

Keywords: AFL, Richmond, AFL HISTORY, Tactics, Dustin Martin

Id: h7OyJIWDqhg

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/whydidyoulistentome]

Well worth that watch just as a reminder of where they came from. Everyone in the club should be proud of their achievements and celebrate each and every single person that helped achieve their goals..

[u/ShootyGeneralB]

Jice

[u/natland89]

Love your stuff fellas!

[u/Hart33]

Roarsome video.