Anatomy of a rebuild: How Richmond and West Coast are on different paths back to the top
They won flags between 2017 and 2020, now Richmond and West Coast are bottom-four clubs. MARK DUFFIELD looks at how both sides are plotting to get back to the top.
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If the AFL is a copycat industry: Everyone copies the premiers – then the next five years will give us a fair idea on who teams will try to copy when it comes to rebuilding a playing list.
Richmond and West Coast between them won the four flags on offer between 2017 and 2020.
They are the clubs that have won the last two wooden spoons. Both teams have finished in the bottom six in the past two seasons. In West Coast’s case they have finished bottom three in the past three.
In theory it puts the two clubs in roughly the same section of Mick Malthouse’s “premiership clock” which determines whether you are rebuilding, developing and improving, or contending.
But the two hands the clubs will take into this year’s national draft could scarcely be more different:
Richmond currently hold eight of this draft’s top 25 picks - although there is talk of them trading some quantity for quality to get to North Melbourne’s pick two.
In the absence of any further trading between now and draft night, Richmond will take four picks before the Eagles take their first - currently pick 12.
And the Tigers will take all eight of their top end picks before the Eagles take their second - currently pick 26 which is likely to be closer to pick 30 by the time father sons and academy bids are factored in.
Richmond has done what it has done in part by design and in part because necessity is the mother of invention. Contracted stars Daniel Rioli and Shai Bolton wanted to leave and out of contract Liam Baker and free agent Jack Graham wanted to go too.
West Coast has ended up with what it has got partly by design and partly by trade misadventure: The Eagles wanted to bring in Baker and his close mate Graham who was a free agent. They came as a package which new coach Andrew McQualter who had worked closely with both during his time at Richmond helped to deliver.
But they lost their grip on Hawthorn while trading Tom Barrass out, lost the draft pick they were keen to use to bring Baker (pick 14) in and in scrambling to re-acquire the draft capital for Baker, they had to split their best pick at this draft.
That was pick three- sent to Carlton to get pick 12 and 14 back which was sent to Richmond for Baker. Matt Owies came from the Blues as the set of steak knives in the trade.
It means the Eagles emerged from this trade period looking like a club that had to scramble to get back to anywhere near even terms. They got draft picks for Barrass in the first and second round - but they come in next year’s draft, not this year’s.
But they also addressed a stated need. They wanted players in the 23 to 28 year age bracket to fill a gaping hole on their list they identified two years ago. Baker, Graham and Owies all fit in that hole.
The Eagles were very young in 2024 and after Andrew Gaff’s retirement and the trading out of Jack Darling and Barrass they would have been younger again in 2025 had they not taken steps to bolster their middle ranks.
On face value and viewing this year alone, Richmond’s rebuild looks set to be turbo-charged and West Coast’s might be in danger of stalling.
But the Eagles have brought in 12 young players in the past three drafts: Those players include three they view as outstanding talents - Harley Reid (obviously), Reuben Ginbey who has played 40 of a possible 46 games in two seasons and Elijah Hewett who unfortunately did not play at all in 2024 because of foot surgery but who is highly rated.
And those drafts show that not all your good players come at the top end of the draft.
On one hand West Coast’s current list predicament is due in no small part to the absence of top 10 draft picks between Andrew Gaff (pick 4 in 2010) and Ginbey (pick 9 in 2022).
But on the other Brady Hough was taken with pick 31 in 2021 but finished fifth in the club best and fairest this year and has played 53 games across his first three seasons.
Forward ruck Jack Williams was taken at pick 57 in the same draft as Hough. He has played 28 games across the past two seasons and kicked 16 goals in 18 games this year. He is yet to turn 21.
Richmond’s draft crop is intoxicating for Tigers fans but a look at history is sobering.
GWS’s draft hand in 2011 was 11 of the first 14 picks. It still took the Giants until their fifth season (2016) to play finals.
And of the 11 picks Jon Patton, Dom Tyson, Matt Buntine and Liam Sumner never emerged as top line players. Will Hoskin-Elliott, Adam Tomlinson, Taylor Adams and Devon Smith became viable AFL players but shifted clubs.
Out of the 11, Stephen Coniglio, Nick Haynes and superstar and current skipper Toby are those who stayed the course with Haynes leaving this year in the twilight of his career.
Having the picks is one thing. Identifying and developing the talent is another and then being able to retain it in the current football climate is another thing again.
North Melbourne has taken six top five selections in the past four national drafts and still needed AFL assistance last year and has gone looking for experience this year. The best talent it took over that period - Jason Horne-Francis - went home after a season.
We view rebuilds with great excitement at the start - when the draft picks are taken and the talent brought in. And we view them with great hindsight and wisdom at the finish when the rewards are reaped: Doesn’t Hawthorn’s list build look a thing of beauty now?
But the Hawks finished outside the eight in six of eight years to get there and 12th or lower five times.
Richmond have not been in this territory for some time. They have now missed the eight in three of the past four seasons.
West Coast have never been in this territory before. This is the first time in club history they have missed finals four years in a row.
The clubs are now on two very different roads back to where things matter in AFL football. Let’s see who gets there first.
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Originally published as Anatomy of a rebuild: How Richmond and West Coast are on different paths back to the top
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