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FWC on Sport Nation guide"Got a bit of life": Why it isn't all doom and gloom for Richmond
Jaiden Sciberras • July 10th, 2026 8:02 pm
With just two wins on the season and a range of injuries across the board, Richmond have found themselves bottoming out once more.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for Adem Yze’s young side.
While the Tigers have struggled to get their game going at all this season, Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne believes that the signs of a highly damaging side are beginning to form.
Over their last four games, Richmond have tallied a score of +15 in first quarters, unbeaten in all of their last three first terms including a three-goal buffer over the Blues in Round 17.
Within those quarters, Champion Data identified a range of characteristics that are starting to bleed into their game, spawning from a selection of eight players standing out over recent weeks.
“A bit like Essendon, you are trying to dig deep to find some positives,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday.
“Watching the first quarter against Carlton on the weekend and watching the first quarter the week before against Collingwood, when they were able to implement a high handball game – it was more handballs than kicks – for the first time in a while, they looked dangerous.
“If you’re looking at the clearance work over the last two weeks – they were on track to be one of the worst clearance teams on record in terms of the scoreboard related stuff. They were clearly 18th for point differential from clearance.
“They have outscored Collingwood and Carlton, two weeks in a row, by six goals. That’s a huge win in there, and they are starting to get some youngsters to go through there.
“Taj Hotton has attended 22 centre bounces. Sam Cumming, 32 centre bounces. Seth Campbell, we’ve spoken about him a fair bit, it looks like when he gets the footy, things happen.
“If I’m a Richmond supporter, I’m thinking, our point of difference is going to be Campbell, Hotton, Sam Lalor, Cumming, Sam Grlj, Patrick Retschko, Steely Green and Jasper Alger.
“There’s eight where you go, they’ve got a bit of speed, they’ve got a bit of energy, they’ve got a bit of life.
“I want to see for the last 28 quarters, can we play half of those quarters – I understand that they are young and they might not be able to do it for a whole 120 minutes – can we see half of this, where we are playing this high handball, high-energy, high-speed game with a bit of energy?
“Yeah, we might get opened up the other way, but I finish the end of the year and I can go, I can see some light at the end of the tunnel here.”
The Tigers take on Melbourne at the MCG this weekend with hopes of remaining competitive.
