Richmond Tigers under fire for ‘arrogance’ in finals campaign

There is a glaring flaw the Richmond Tigers need to address if they have any hope of winning their third AFL premiership in four years.

There is a glaring flaw the Richmond Tigers need to address if they have any hope of winning their third AFL premiership in four years.

Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown believes “arrogance” and a lack of discipline could cost the Richmond Tigers their third AFL premiership in four years.

The Lions broke a horror 11-year drought on Friday evening, defeating Richmond by 15 points at the Gabba.

The Tigers came under fire for ill-disciplined errors late in the second quarter, which cost them an early lead in Brisbane.

After Richmond’s Marlion Pickett was penalised for a throw in Brisbane’s defensive 50, umpire Andre Gianfagna immediately awarded another 50m penalty when Shai Bolton appeared to swear at him.

Tigers superstar Dustin Martin also conceded a 50m penalty on Friday, and his teammates regularly sparked needless scuffles with opponents.

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Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews told 3AW: “There is that element of when you are used to bullying teams just by the way you play and all of a sudden there is a fightback — Richmond haven’t handled that well. Three 50m penalties — those are deplorable mistakes.”

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick told Fox Footy at halftime: “The reality is we’ve given away I think five goals from free kicks, we’ve got to be more disciplined.”

According to Champion Data, the Tigers are ranked 18th for 50m penalties against this season.

AFL Finals match centres

Trent Cotchin leads the Tigers off the Gabba after losing to the Brisbane Lions.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s On The Couch, Brown suggested Richmond’s hubris could cost them a flag.

“It’s not good enough. It’s why you lose finals,” Brown said on Monday evening.

“When you’ve been the top dog for a few years, you’ve got to be careful (you don’t) get this arrogance about you in the wrong way. I was involved in a team that when sides started to challenge us back in the early 2000s, we got our back up a bit.

“I think Richmond can recover from (this), because they aren’t an ageing team like Brisbane were. They’re still well and truly in their prime this team, but they’ve got to fix their discipline.”

St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt added: “They’ve had these moments, not just on the field but off the field, this year. But because you win, you get referred to as having a ‘great culture’, so you are winning because of your culture despite the off-field stuff.

“This is the first time in that period where all the stuff we’ve spoken about with Richmond this year, you can really start to question the humility and some of those things.”

On Fox Footy’s AFL 360, co-host Mark Robinson suggested the reigning premiers had gone from being bullies to the bullied.

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Dustin Martin of the Tigers.

“All great teams gather an arrogance … It’s part of who they are and it’s part of their mental disintegration of lesser teams,” Robinson said on Monday.

“But all great teams hate it when someone comes up and goes, ‘We’re not putting up with your c**p anymore and we’ll give it back to you’. What happens then, the champs get affronted.

“On the weekend with the 50m penalties, I just thought, ‘You’ve been the bullies, now someone is standing up to the bullies’.

“They get cranky when people confront them and throw back at them what they’ve been throwing at the competition for three years.”

Earlier in the season, Tigers tall forward Tom Lynch copped criticism for an off-ball strike on Gold Coast Suns defender Sam Collins.

Richmond will take on St Kilda on Friday evening at Metricon Stadium for a spot in the preliminary finals.