AFL Trade Period: Who Richmond could select with eight of the first 24 picks in National Draft

Richmond boasts an incredible draft hand — eight of the first 24 selections in this year’s ‘super draft’. Draft expert CHRIS CAVANAGH details who the Tigers could pick to kickstart their rebuild.

Recruiters have labelled 2024 an “extraordinary” draft and Richmond has been left holding the whip hand.

The Tigers had to navigate some “rocky moments” during the trade period and lost some experienced stars in Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton and Liam Baker.

However, list boss Blair Hartley eventually got what he wanted for the premiership trio and now holds eight of the first 24 selections in next month’s national draft.

“(This is) what we view as a very, very strong draft and as a list manager you’re always looking to position yourselves in those stronger drafts, which sets our club up for what’s next,” Hartley said on Wednesday night.

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There has not been a club which has had so many top-end draft picks since Gold Coast (2010) and Greater Western Sydney (2011) were on the verge of entering the competition.

Trades for Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper in 2022 left Richmond with no access to top-end talent the past two years.

The Tigers’ first draft selection in 2022 was Kaleb Smith (pick 49), while they entered last year’s draft by choosing Kane McAulliffe (pick 40).

This year, Richmond has pick 1 — among four of the first 11 selections.

History tells us that not all high draft picks live up to expectations when they graduate from junior footy to the big league.

The last time Richmond had pick 1 was in 2004, when it secured Kyabram flyer Brett Deledio.

The midfielder was a two-time Tigers’ best-and-fairest winner, a two-time All-Australian and served four years as a vice-captain before finishing his career with GWS.

But Deledio was just one of five top-20 picks for the Tigers that year.

The others were Richard Tambling (pick 4), Danny Meyer (pick 12), Adam Pattinson (pick 16) and Dean Polo (pick 20).

Tambling was the only one of that group to play more than 61 games in the yellow and black.

Of course, that was a different era at Punt Rd and Hartley later went on to build a list which won premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Can he now engineer another premiership push through this draft, perhaps by 2030?

Recruiters have differing opinions on who should be the No. 1 pick this year, but they all agree that this draft is as strong as super glue and has plenty of depth to pick 25 and beyond.

There are also two other big ticks about this draft for the Tigers.

One is that there is something for everyone in the top-30 group – from gun midfielders to promising key position players and damaging smalls at both ends of the ground.

The second is that most of the top-end talent is from Victoria.

Some 25 of the top 30 players in our 2024 Draft Dossier are from Victoria – if you include key forward Jobe Shanahan, who lives just across the New South Wales border in Moama but goes to school in Echuca and has played for the Bendigo Pioneers.

The heavy Victorian cohort means the Tigers can select without fear of the go-home factor, which was key in the departures of West Australian products Bolton and Baker this year.

Just because the trade period is over, that doesn’t mean that Richmond’s picks won’t change between now and November 20.

Hartley hasn’t ruled out further pick swaps, with clubs able to trade picks in the lead up to the draft and on the night.

But if the Tigers hold their current hand, the “what’s next” that the club talks about could look quite exciting in the years to come.

Originally published as AFL Trade Period: Who Richmond could select with eight of the first 24 picks in National Draft