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Sport Nation
How the Tigers are reinstating the old-school rebuild
Jaiden Sciberras • August 28th, 2025 1:00 pm
Richmond have epitomised the value in the old-school rebuild.
Given the compromised format of the AFL draft, the scheme of bottoming out and resetting with fresh faces has become a relatively difficult task, and one that few have been willing to take.
However, as the 2025 off-season get started, the Tigers have followed the recipe word-for-word, collating a glut of top-end talent and high value draft picks to build a fresh environment.
In 2024, Richmond entered the National Draft with six first round picks, all of which have proven worthy of selection at the top level. Starting with their midfield talent, Sam Lalor with the first overall pick and Josh Smillie with the seventh will prove a deadly duo in due time, however luckless runs with injuries robbed the 2025 season of a glimpse of what’s to come.
Taj Hotton, Jonty Faull, and Harry Armstrong helped to structure a new-look forward line, Luke Trainor played 21 games in a variety of roles while later selections Thomas Sims and Jasper Alger showed promising signs in their limited cameos.
Led by quality veterans and a top fresh face in the coaching box, Richmond are setting the example for the manner in which a team should rebuild and entering the 2025 draft with both pick two and pick three (from North Melbourne), the run of top talent is set to carry through to yet another draft.
Given their talent tracks as planned, it won’t be long before the Tigers return to the pinnacle of football.
“I absolutely love what they’ve done,” Kane Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
“They had some good will to be able to do it and wear the pain because of the success that they’ve had.
“They were in a perfect position; they had the great advantage of the Gold Coast doing stupid things by giving ridiculous prices to their players, which made the decision to let (Daniel) Rioli go easy.
“It appears as though they’ve nailed their picks, which is a lot easier to do when you have elite picks and a lot of them. (Sam) Lalor is phenomenal, we don’t talk about him at all because of the injury but he is something else, so hopefully they can get him right and then go again to this year’s draft. They’re in a great spot.”
Cornes’ comments come off the back of North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson claiming that the full rebuild is dead, as his Kangaroo side continues to struggle at the bottom-end of the ladder.
“It’s been as challenging a time as ever in the game as to how you secure your players,” Clarkson said.
“Whether it’s to do with northern academies, the next gen academies, the indigenous academies… I think to be fair the total rebuild, any club won’t go there ever again unless there can be some sort of mechanism where you can see opportunity to improve your list.
“Many clubs have thought they’d be able to get really high draft picks and trade a player to get another, but you can’t get into the high end of the draft because of all the compromise in the first round in particular.
“All the clubs that are in the bottom eight of the ladder… because they are in that boat of trying to get their lists better, they are the sides that are scrambling trying to work out how they can get some talent into their footy club.”
Citing Richmond’s framework alongside several of today’s top teams, Cornes and journalist Tom Morris strongly disagreed with the veteran coach’s viewpoint.
Cornes: “I disagree with Alastair Clarkson that you can’t rebuild. I look at Adelaide and go, that’s the exact reason that you can rebuild. I look at Hawthorn – both of those two teams are playing finals off the back of an aggressive rebuild.”
Morris: “The Brisbane Lions, seven years in a row they’ve played finals now off the back of a disaster.
“The ‘Go-Home Five, that was almost a decade ago!”
Cornes: “And Clarko’s telling me you can’t rebuild. I don’t understand that.”
Morris: “I liked Sonja Hood’s (North Melbourne club president) letter to members, because it spoke about their impatience, but they need to set a higher ceiling next year. They need to be more aggressive.”
The National Draft is set for mid-November, with the Tigers looking to add further talent to their young list.
