AFL Draft 2023: Inside the Tigers’ 2023 draft strategy and what it means for 2024
The Richmond ‘Sliders’ surprised many with their 2023 strategy, SAM LANDSBERGER talks with key Tigers’ tacticians to discover why the fruits of the plan will be tasted in 2024.
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Not for the first time, Richmond’s draft tactics have triggered a nickname from its rivals.
The Tigers were cheekily dubbed ‘Bidmond’ in 2019 – they were then the draft’s perennial bidders – only for chief recruiter Matt Clarke to recycle that status on Sydney instead last year.
“People are now calling us the ‘Richmond Sliders’,” Matt Clarke told the Herald Sun on Wednesday.
“Because we kept working the phones to slide picks into next year. So we’ve changed from ‘Bidmond’ over to ‘Bidney’, and now we’re the Sliders.”
Greater Western Sydney recruiter Emma Quayle coined the gag in a text to Clarke and on Tuesday night she was right.
The Tigers entered the draft at pick 35, soaked up four minutes of the shot clock (every club is given five minutes per selection) and then slid back to pick 38 in a trade with Fremantle.
Then, at pick 38 they spent four more minutes on the clock before trading back from pick 38 to 40.
But like ‘Bidmond’, the ‘Richmond Sliders’ is set for a short shelf life.
Next year it will be the ‘Richmond Risers’ as the Tigers plot to upgrade their suite of future picks into coveted first-round selections.
They hold nine selections in the 2024 draft.
On Tuesday night they banked Fremantle’s future third-rounder, West Coast’s future third-rounder and Essendon’s future fourth-rounder without risking access to draft targets Kane McAuliffe or Liam Fawcett.
Put simply, Clarke has conjured a cache of draft points that will be in hot demand as another smattering of father-son and academy stars swell the first round.
“We don’t know if there’s going to be anywhere near the points that Gold Coast had to get this year with their four academy boys, but we know that the Crows are going to need a lot of points for (father-son) Tyler Welsh,” Clarke said.
“Carlton has got the Camporeale boys, and one of them (Ben) is a genuinely right at the pointy end.
“They’re both outstanding kids, they just run and keep getting the footy.
“Then there’s obviously Gold Coast with (academy star Leo Lombard) and we always know there will be others to emerge.”
Fans who sat at home flummoxed as they watched the draft should realise that the Tigers crept an inch backwards to go a mile forwards.
Richmond’s draft haul of Kane McAuliffe and Liam Fawcett looked quite dull in comparison to most clubs.
But imagine if those itty bitty deals help capture the Suns, Blues or Crows precious pick next year?
In the past eight drafts the Tigers have used just one pick inside the first 15 (Josh Gibcus No. 9 in 2021).
So if they are sitting on two golden choices next year – their own plus a bonus one from a club chasing draft points – what should they do?
Choose two young guns in a draft class that Clarke rated as “really strong” at the top?
Or be bold and shake out another club’s star?
“We know realistically where we’re at in terms of developing key position depth,” Clarke said.
“But because we haven’t picked at the top for a while, maybe you want to add some high-end talent – no matter what type of player they are.
“Or a positional talent that you want to trade for to fill a hole.
“That’s where you’ve got the currency with these (future) picks to go, ‘OK, maybe we do bundle up two or three picks to give to Carlton to get their first pick, and then you’ve got two first-rounders.
“Then, you can go to a club and go, ‘OK, hey, we want your big boy – here’s two first-rounders’.”
For the record, the list of ‘big boys’ out of contract in 2024 includes Ben King (Gold Coast), Aaron Cadman (GWS), Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Tim English (Western Bulldogs) and Logan McDonald (Sydney).
All of this traces back to a draft strategy saturated in surveillance … and it was not even Plan A.
The Tigers started Tuesday trying to trade up the order from pick 35 – not down.
They ranked big boys Archie Reid and Mitch Edwards well inside their first round and so they offered West Coast pick 35 plus a future pick for No. 30 (the first selection on Tuesday night).
They were comfortable diluting their 2024 draft hand but realistic it was unlikely to tempt the Eagles.
They declined, took Reid themselves and then Geelong grabbed Edwards at pick 32.
“We probably could’ve gone a little bit harder (at striking a trade for Reid or Edwards), but our strong intelligence was that we were in the box seat for young Liam Fawcett,” he said.
“We always had Fawcett rated quite highly as well, so if they’re (Edwards and Reid) off the board we still have the option of picking a developing young key just behind those.”
With the Tigers unable to move up from No. 35 their strategy shifted to stockpiling future selections by cleverly manoeuvring down the order without risking access to their draft targets.
The intelligence gathered by football chief Blair Hartley was critical.
Richmond knew Carlton and Fremantle held interest in Fawcett, and that Collingwood had conducted a house visit in South Australia.
But Port Adelaide loomed as the danger, and so the Tigers prioritised taking both of their picks before the Power’s first.
Richmond’s trifecta of trades allowed Fremantle (Cooper Simpson), West Coast (Clay Hall) and Essendon (Archie Roberts) to secure their top targets immediately.
But when the deals were lodged the Tigers did not know for sure who any of those clubs would be taking.
“We go, ‘OK, there’s a club ringing – who do we think they’re going to pick? We think they like this type, we think they’ve picked one of these before, we know this guy (rival recruiter) likes this type,” Clarke said.
“I reckon it’s him. Well, we’re not picking him – let’s slide it, and that’s what we ended up doing.”
Only once have the Tigers asked who a rival would pick before agreeing to a swap on draft night.
The Tigers did not want to miss out on Hugo Ralphsmith in 2019 and so the honourable Ned Guy (ex-Collingwood list boss) divulged that the Pies wanted Trent Bianco to seal the deal.
Richmond recruiters had rated midfielder Clay Hall highly, however when he became an Eagle at pick 38 they did not get overly twitchy.
“If you’ve got your heart set on one player specifically then you probably won’t do a lot of these things,” Clarke said.
“But when you’ve got a band of players at a certain rating you go, ‘OK, well he’s one of these’.
“We’ve moved back three spots – but we’ve got this band of five players that are rated the same and so if one goes off, that’s OK – we’ll pick him.”
Hartley’s phone ran hot on the clock. He would transcribe the incoming offers to Clarke, who would then collaborate with their crew.
“At one point there were four or five (trade) scenarios for one pick, so (we had to choose) what’s the best?” Clarke said.
“OK, who’s giving you the future third?”
The Tigers referenced their “subjective calculation” of the 2024 premiership race when weighing up offers.
That basically sounds like the world’s earliest ladder predictor, essentially reinforcing that West Coast’s future picks will probably be more valuable than Collingwood’s.
It might seem speaking to five clubs and selecting the best deal while scanning for intelligence on who likes your players is a lot to get done in four minutes.
But it was a deliberate tactic to also test the AFL’s shot clock.
“Sometimes people look at the clock and go, ‘Why aren’t they picking a bloke?’” Clarke said.
“But you just don’t know who’s going to ring. We’re going to pick this bloke – but hang on. Just wait, just wait, and oh, gee the phone rings.
“You sit there and wait for someone to call because we’ve got three blokes here all rated the same.
“We’re happy to pick either of them, but let’s just wait and someone might give us something good to roll back one or two picks and we’ll pick the same bloke.
“Let’s just hold.”
After sliding from No. 35 to No. 38 and then from No. 38 to No. 40 the Tigers held again.
They fielded two more offers to moonwalk through the 40s, helping explain why it took four minutes to simply take McAuliffe.
“But 40 might’ve gone back to 47 or 48, and that probably would’ve wiped out three of the guys we had rated there,” Clarke said.
“We’ve done pretty well. If we’re going to be risking it, let’s take our chips from the table now.
“We put a lot of time and effort into this. A lot of people were probably sitting there going, ‘Oh, well, they just picked two players’.
“The team that gathered the intel, it mightn’t look like much. But it was mentally draining by the end I can guarantee it.”
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Originally published as AFL Draft 2023: Inside the Tigers’ 2023 draft strategy and what it means for 2024
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