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Richmond has the impressive record of having ten current players on their list who are top-100 game players at the club.
For a club that’s been established for over 100 years and has had 1165 players, it is remarkable that these ten players have all been at Richmond for at least the last seven years and would make up 45 per cent of the side if they had all been playing in the grand final.
Sadly, Alex Rance injured his knee in the first game of the season against Carlton at the MCG, so the total of top 100 game players in Richmond’s is nine, or 40 per cent, of all players in the team.
These nine have shown remarkable resilience, with only Jack Riewoldt and Trent Cotchin having injuries severe enough to prevent them playing 20 or more games for the season. However, the club’s two Gold Coast recruits, Dion Prestia and Tom Lynch, who are not on the elite list, led the way, playing all 24 games so far this season, and first-year import Lynch contributed 61 goals.
Five other players missed one game only, and three of these – Nathan Broad, Dylan Grimes and Nick Vlastuin – were members of the Tigers back line that conceded only 1664 points during the 22-game home-and-away series.
Playing together for seven-plus years not only increases your understanding of your teammates on the field and makes your actions more instinctive, but because you train together, play together and often socialise together, it also increases your respect and love for your teammates and therefore your willingness to run through a brick wall for them.
Even those who have not been around long enough to be recognised as elite players have experienced the highs and lows of football that build your character and make you hungry for success. Sixteen players in the team were teammates when Richmond defeated Adelaide in the 2017 grand final. The Tigers were expected to go back to back after they proved to be the most successful team at the end of the home-and-away season before being soundly beaten in the 2018 preliminary final by Collingwood.
No doubt these sixteen players were looking forward to playing Collingwood in the 2019 grand final to extract some revenge.
Instead they will be playing Greater Western Sydney, who this season have been playing some unsociable football and shown great persistence and courage in their two close victories over Brisbane and Collingwood during the finals.
The Giants have been around for only eight years – less time than Jack Riewoldt, Shane Edwards, Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, David Astbury, Dylan Grimes and Bacher Houli have been Tigers players – but this extremely talented group of players has been moulded into a team that has developed a strong bond like the Tigers because of their location in western Sydney.
They will enter the grand final with no expectations but the ability to be unpredictable and take on all challenges.
It should be a wonderful grand final, and how fortunate it is for Marlion Pickett to be introduced to AFL football in front of a crowd of around 100,000 people.
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