AFL round 9: Richmond v West Coast Eagles, Tom Lynch on mentoring Richmond’s next generation
Tom Lynch has declared he will finish his career at Richmond, content with mentoring the club’s next batch of stars instead of chasing a premiership. He tells Jon Ralph what Tiger fans have to look forward to.
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Sam Lalor’s perfectly weighted drop punt to a leading Tom Lynch last Sunday landed with such precision it was impossible for the premiership star not to mark it.
A second kick from Lalor only minutes later was even better.
As the No. 1 draft pick broke from the centre square he drew Lynch into an area of open space and forced him to veer right to gain separation from Hawthorn defender Josh Battle.
Lalor’s delivery was Dustin Martin-esque and yet he has tricks even Martin could not produce.
“I would like to start my career now and lead to him. He just hits the ball beautifully,” dual premiership hero Lynch told the Herald Sun this week.
“As a No. 1 draft pick he hasn’t got any ego at all. He just wants to get better. He’s got that speed and power (of Martin) but one thing he has shown this year is he’s elite overhead.
“In the pre-season he just jumped on Toby Nankervis’s head and took this massive screamer and that will only come out more as he plays more football.”
Lynch has traded premiership ambitions for helping to mind Richmond’s creche.
It is a wild ride and yet he doesn’t mind one bit.
Lynch has played all but one of Richmond’s games this season – more on that suspension later – after two years ravaged by injury.
On Sunday his games tally — 227 — dwarfed the combined total of the forwards around him including Rhyan Mansell (58), Maurice Rioli (40), Seth Campbell (29), Steely Green (14), Jonty Faull (four) and Lalor (seven).
And while Lynch has always been a man of few words, his experience on the training track, reviewing tape and mentoring this new breed of Tigers is worth its weight in gold.
He isn’t keen to retire any time soon, but Richmond will one day be spoiled for choice in replacing the 32-year-old.
The Punt Rd pantry is stocked with key talls.
Included are aggressive key forward Faull (pick 14), classy key back Luke Trainor (pick 21), athletic roaming key forward Harry Armstrong (pick 23), high-leaping key forward Thomas Sims (pick 28), returning key tall Mykelti Lefau, and second-year key tall Liam Fawcett (the 2023 No. 43 pick).
Also in that group are injury-prone key back Josh Gibcus (pick eight), versatile ruck-back-forward Jacob Blight (2023 mid-season draft) and key forward-turned-back Campbell Gray (2023 mid-season draft) plus emerging rucks Mate Colina, Oliver-Hayes Brown and Samson Ryan.
Faull, Fawcett, Blight, Armstrong, Trainor and Gray have all shown impressive signs this season and each plays with different enough strengths to believe they will one day form the nucleus of a side capable of finals football.
Jonty Faull kicks his first AFL goal 🥰#AFLTigersSunspic.twitter.com/BgHwEF38S3
— AFL (@AFL) April 19, 2025
Sam Lalor nails it from outside 50!#AFLPowerTigerspic.twitter.com/Y0IE5DLPMz
— AFL (@AFL) March 22, 2025
For a Richmond side which hasn’t get seen pick No. 7 Josh Smillie at AFL level and with excitement machine Taj Hotton (ACL tear) yet to play VFL, it is an awesome array of talent.
“It is a bit of a change in philosophy,” Lynch said this week of a year of growth led by new forward line coach Chris Newman with the ex-Suns captain helping any way he can.
“When I came to Richmond we were in the premiership window and as much as we want to win every week it’s how can I help those young guys as quickly as possible become great AFL footballers.
“It’s refreshing and I am definitely enjoying it. The forward line is definitely our youngest line. Mansell is the next most experienced. So it’s good fun. We don’t lack for any energy around the club. The young boys are up and about and I have to learn their lingo at times but I am loving it.
“To be honest I take my hat off to those young guys. They want to work hard, learn quickly and get the club back pushing towards the eight again.”
Lynch isn’t keen to lecture or remind those key talls how he did it in his glory years.
At times he will watch tape with Faull or Sims or Armstrong (who is out with a long-term hamstring injury) or Newman will assess his tape with those young forwards as Lynch talks through his running patterns and tactics in any given contest.
He also knows they aren’t Lynch clones — Armstrong’s elite tank allows him to hit the wings, Faull is a pack-crasher like him, ruck-forward Sims has a huge leap so can jump on heads, Fawcett’s booming kick will see him kicking goals from outside 50m.
They are also playing with a group of smalls that has huge potential in Tasmanians Campbell and Mansell, pressure player Rioli, Liam Baker clone Green and Lalor.
Former captain Newman has been “sensational”, according to Lynch after he returned to the club from Hawthorn to coach the mids last year. Newman oversees the young forward group this season.
Lynch said Newman’s perfect blend of elite football knowledge and strong relationships is exactly what the young group needs.
Newman provides strong feedback when required, knows when to have laugh, knows what buttons to push.
He has helped organise his forward group to take various sections of the club out for dinner so Lynch, Fawcett, Faull and Armstrong found themselves hosting the Tigers’ property steward, Newman and club leaders Nankervis and Nick Vlastuin at a Chinatown restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD.
“We just got the train in and most of the young boys hadn’t even been into the city so it was a good night,” Lynch said.
TOM LYNCH.
— 7AFL (@7AFL) March 16, 2023
TIED. GAME.#AFLTigersBluespic.twitter.com/AyKuJowMgn
FIT AGAIN AFTER YEARS OF INJURY PAIN
After two seasons out with foot concerns, Lynch is thrilled to be back and even more relieved not have to answer questions about when he might return 20 times a day.
In the final season of a seven-season deal, clubs asked questions about his future last season.
He was committed to the rebuild then and is even more invested now.
“I don’t think I’ll be playing anywhere other than Richmond. I won’t be playing anywhere else to be honest. I will be at Richmond,” he said.
“I am going into the year uncontracted which I haven’t done for a while. I signed a long-term deal when I got here. I definitely want to keep playing footy. I love it. It’s the best job in the world. It’s great fun. But I want to be performing well. I think it will be a decision for a couple of people but I am definitely keen. I haven’t lost my love for the game and it’s been great fun to be back out there.
“We will work out if I go on or finish up, but that will be later in the year and there is no rush. I haven’t even spoken to (list boss) Blair Hartley or my manager about it so there is no rush.”
The new breed are coming – Noah Balta is back from suspension, Lefau is 1-3 weeks away after his ACL tear, and key back Gibcus will likely be back in the second half of the year.
Lynch is adamant Balta has done the work to improve himself as a person after his guilty plea to an assault charge over summer.
“He has and clearly it’s not one week and done,” Lynch said. “He has to play great footy this year for us and I am sure he will. You see that Gold Coast game, we don’t win that game if he doesn’t play. He let Nick Vlastuin play the way he did and Ben Miller. too.
“Balta is signed up here for a long time and we need him to be a leader of this footy club. He will keep working and keep getting better. He’s a good player and we need him to be a good player.”
Lynch might look a bit hunchbacked or sore as he takes to the field but says he is growing in confidence each week, even if some missed set shots in recent weeks have frustrated the usually reliable kick.
THE TDK BUMP
He has always turned from gentle giant into raging bull on the football field, suspended for a high bump on Carlton’s Tom De Koning in round 1 but adamant he’s no footy thug.
“I have only been suspended for two weeks in my whole career,” Lynch said. “So I feel like people think it’s been a lot more. Besides that one in round 1 I missed a week once back at the Gold Coast, so I am aggressive and I launch at the footy.
“Obviously you can’t do what I did to De Koning. I tried to bump him and I got him high. And when you bump and you get them, you are gone. With that one I looked back and I probably needed him to get up. And he got up straight away, which definitely helped. But I understand the reason I copped the week.”
So Lynch will keep building on his season, aware that the club is in good hands whenever he eventually pulls up stumps.
“It’s really exciting,” he said. “There are a long list of names and they have all played this year and all played well. Some guys are out of the team at the moment but it wasn’t through lack of ability. Some guys are just going a bit better. It’s what you need. You see the best sides, they have got 30 guys who can play good AFL footy and we are trying to develop that.
“Clearly we know where we are at on the ladder and in our progression as a footy club, but it’s really exciting for these Richmond fans to know we have got these great key position players that are going to be here for a very long time.”
Originally published as AFL round 9: Richmond v West Coast Eagles, Tom Lynch on mentoring Richmond’s next generation
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