How the revamped Tigers could look in 2023 with the potential additions of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper
Just how far can the additions of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper take Richmond? Take a look at the Tigers’ best 22 for 2023 and tell us what you think.
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Next season Jack Riewoldt will play at Richmond on a contract as much as $175,000 less than former Tiger Callum Coleman-Jones, who landed at Arden St this year.
For comparison, Riewoldt has three flags, three Coleman Medals, 11 Richmond goalkicking trophies and 755 goals to Coleman-Jones’ 19 games and 16 goals.
As Riewoldt said on Friday, the chase for the flag is one of the primary reasons he is playing on, having confided to good mate Richie Porte on a charity bike ride over summer this would be his last year.
But it is another example of the chasm between the AFL’s haves and have nots, with Riewoldt prepared to play for $300,000 and the Tigers using the 2022 second-round pick they secured for Coleman-Jones to help nab GWS mids Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
The Tigers already look top-four bound next year, and what is to say in 2025, when Dustin Martin’s $1.3 million falls off their books, they won’t go out and find another Tom Lynch-style free agent to succeed him.
So Richmond are the big winners already from the trade period.
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And yet surely by the time the Roos are handed a suite of picks from their special assistance request, the AFL will have recognised the extraordinary equalisation challenge the league is facing.
Whether it is a priority selection before the No.1 overall draft selection or a suite of early mid-first-round or end-of-first-round picks, the league will be fully aware of the dangers of doing too little.
The draft and salary cap are supposed to create a boom-bust cycle, but on current draft position the Roos will take picks one and 55 to the draft after a two-win year and Richmond will add Hopper and Taranto and also try to draft a developing young tall.
The AFL will have to think seriously about the Roos securing a pre-draft priority pick to secure the best two kids in the land if they actually want them to improve quickly enough to be competitive as the vast TV rights deal kicks in for 2025.
After all, the AFL is nothing if it is not a money-making organisation and it will be desperate for nine competitive games in coming years before Tasmania enters the competition as early as 2026.
Not only are Gold Coast and GWS gutted by established clubs on a yearly basis —Hopper and Taranto join Suns star Izak Rankine in moving back to traditional teams — the old national draft mechanism just doesn’t work like it used to.
Richmond win the 2017 flag and 12 months later add Gold Coast free agent Lynch.
Then they prey on the Giants salary cap weakness — created by the lack of COLA and huge rival offers for established stars — to drag out Taranto and Hopper.
Hopper wants to come to the bright lights of Richmond and who could blame him after he played in front of crowds of 9010, 7772 and 7338 in three of his last five GWS games.
Some of the Giants’ salary cap issues are self-inflicted, but as the AFL considers North Melbourne’s priority pick submission in Grand Final week Richmond’s trade heist will surely weigh heavily on the minds of the AFL.
DETAIL IN TIGERS’ HOPPER OFFER CATS REFUSED TO MATCH
Greater Western Sydney star Jacob Hopper has chosen Richmond as his preferred trade destination with the emerging star keen to join the Tigers on a seven-year deal.
Hopper is set to be part of an astonishing trade double act that will see the Tigers recharge their midfield with Hopper hopeful GWS will grant him a trade request to join his mate Tim Taranto.
Geelong had been a strong suitor for Hopper, who is a GWS academy player growing up in the small Riverine town of Leeton but boarded in Ballarat while at St Patrick’s College.
But the Tigers are believed to have pitched a more lucrative deal and have also offered seven seasons, which the Cats were not prepared to match.
The Cats will now plan their next move and are still keen on GWS teammate Tanner Bruhn, unwilling to significantly up their offer given they pay players in fairly strict bands to ensure fairness across the list.
Hopper headed overseas on Thursday morning and before that his management firm Connors Sports informed the Cats that if he moved the Tigers would be his likely home instead of them.
But unlike the uncontracted Taranto Hopper has a deal through to 2023 so Richmond will have to stump up a significant deal involving multiple picks or he will remain at GWS.
Richmond has long believed it could secure one of the Giants midfielders given the tight salary cap that GWS is trying to rectify this year.
But to secure both Taranto and Hopper will immediately put the Tigers back in as premiership contenders if it can orchestrate trades for the pair.
It seems likely Richmond will have to hand over most of picks 12, 19, 30 and next year’s future first-rounder for the pair and potentially throw in a player like ruckman Ivan Soldo.
GWS will ask for two first rounders for Taranto but the market for experienced mids of his quality in recent years has normally been two first-rounders with a second-rounder handed back.
Richmond believes Taranto’s vast tank will allow him to play as a more defensive mid who wins key stoppages but then can two-way run and allow Shai Bolton and Dustin Martin to play a more offensive role.
Hopper, a former No. 7 draft pick, had his 2022 season ruined by a knee injury but last year averaged 26 disposals, 98 ranking points, 12 contested possessions and 6.3 stoppages a game.
At only 25 the Tigers will believe they can get 150 exceptional games from him and keep their premiership window wide open.
For Geelong the decision is a setback but the emergence of Max Holmes and Tom Atkins as an inside midfielder means they will not be short of midfield options.
Bruhn, a number 12 draft pick at GWS, has interest from Hawthorn, North Melbourne and the Cats but has plenty of time to decide his future.
THE PICKS, PLAYER WHO CAN SEAL DOUBLE TIGER DEAL
Jay Clark
Richmond could follow in Geelong’s footsteps in off-loading as many as four high draft picks plus a senior player to pull off a blockbuster move for GWS Giants’ star midfield pair Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
The Tigers are eyeing Taranto and Hopper to provide a massive injection of toughness and class into their engine room and revitalise their premiership prospects next season.
But it could see the Tigers hand over a bevy of top draft picks which they have smartly accumulated in recent years to help execute such a deal with the Giants.
Richmond holds picks 12, 19 and 30 in this year’s draft and also have a future first-round pick for next year’s draft up their sleeves to help satisfy the Giants.
The wildcard in the scenario is the future of Richmond back-up ruckman Ivan Soldo and whether he would be part of the deal.
Soldo, who is from Canberra, could appeal to the Giants as a potential candidate for the No. 1 ruck position but it would have to be in addition to an early draft pick.
Soldo, 26, is contracted to Richmond until the end of 2024 after signing a three-year deal last season but he was dropped from the senior team late in the year.
It means Richmond could offer up 12 and 19 for Taranto and look to package their future first-round pick and Soldo in a deal for Hopper under one scenario.
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But any deal involving Soldo remains a long way off as GWS is yet to have meaningful talks about the big man.
The two-pick swap for Taranto, 24, fits well on the AFL’s draft value index as picks 12 and 19 combined equal 2216 points which just falls short of the pick two value of 2517 points.
Taranto was originally taken with pick two in between Essendon’s No. 1 pick Andrew McGrath and Brisbane’s No. 3 Hugh McCluggage in 2016.
But it is clear the Giants would much prefer an early single-figure pick for Taranto where the chances of landing a star player are much higher in comparison with two picks in the teens.
Hopper, 25, is contracted at GWS for next season and could remain on the list for another year when he could leave as a free agent, likely earning GWS an earlier draft pick as compensation compared to Richmond’s first choice next year.
But the Giants need to off-load some big-money wages this year to help recalibrate their salary cap after years of back-ending deals.
Geelong struck a similar deal for superstar Jeremy Cameron two years ago when it off-loaded three high picks to GWS for the gun spearhead and two second-round picks in return.
The savvy move from Geelong defied critics of their age profile and list strategy as Chris Scott’s team remain the favourite to win this year’s premiership after taking another mature-age player instead of heading back to the national draft with a suite of picks.
Cameron, 29, is now considered by some football experts as the most valuable player in the game.
The Cats are also strongly interested in Hopper and are expected to meet with the hard nut midfielder once their season concludes.
Geelong list bosses Andrew Mackie and Stephen Wells have long been big fans of Hopper and have the salary cap room to add a top-end player to their midfield for next season.
His hard edge could help take some of the load off ageing stars Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield next season, but Richmond has already met with Hopper and his teammate Taranto.
The deals with Richmond could see the Giants end up with a bumper draft hand including picks three, 12, 19, 21 and 30.
North Melbourne has the top pick in this year’s draft and could be tempted to off-load it in exchange for a bundle of picks to help land some mature-age talent.
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Originally published as How the revamped Tigers could look in 2023 with the potential additions of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper
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