AFL club’s turnaround puts rivals to shame as massive gamble backfires

A fallen AFL dynasty has suddenly turned its fortunes around as a massive gamble looks set to blow up in a rival club’s face.

Getting a rebuild right might be the hardest thing to do in the AFL, but one club is putting others to shame with a first half of the season that has taken many by surprise.

Few fans and pundits gave Richmond much hope of winning more than two games this year after losing a slew of premiership players to retirement (Dustin Martin, Dylan Grimes) and trades (Liam Baker, Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Jack Graham).

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Coach Adem Yze’s “aura” was even questioned, but the Tigers have nailed the start to their rebuild after picking up seven players in the first round of last year’s draft.

Richmond stunned Carlton in Round 1 at the MCG and have since picked up wins over Gold Coast and West Coast, with a chance to pick up a fourth victory against lowly North Melbourne on Sunday.

North Melbourne have finished second last or wooden spooners in each of the past five seasons, and the Kangaroos missed a golden chance to snatch a rare win when they drew against Brisbane last weekend.

Richmond already have three wins this season when some predicted they wouldn’t win a game. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

It’s early days but Richmond’s rebuild is looking way ahead of their timeline, even in the eyes of triple premiership player and Fox Footy expert Jack Riewoldt.

“It’s probably a different rebuild to what we’ve ever seen,” Riewoldt told news.com.au.

“The fact that they had like an absolute host of picks in that first round so they’ve clearly invested heavily in this draft and more likely will have two picks in the top five next year as well.”

In last year’s draft, Richmond drafted Sam Lalor, Josh Smilie, Taj Hotton, Jonty Faull, Luke Trainor, Harry Armstrong and Thomas Sims.

Lalor and Trainor have particularly impressed, while Smilie and Hotton are highly rated prospects yet to debut.

“As a supporter more than anything else, I think their season has been fantastic,” Riewoldt said.

“I’ve been enjoying the way they’ve been playing footy.

“The wins have been great. They’ve got another opportunity this weekend against North Melbourne, it’s going to be a really good game on Fox.

“So I think I probably speak for a lot of Richmond people. We know where we’re at and maybe we feel we might be slightly ahead of where we thought we would be, and certainly where a lot of non-Richmond people thought we would be.”

No. 1 pick Sam Lalor has made a solid start at Richmond. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

No. 7 pick Josh Smilie with Jack Riewoldt at last year’s draft. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The rebuild has become somewhat of a dirty word with clubs having mixed success at the draft, but it’s never been more important to have good young players with the Tasmanian team set to be given a swag of draft concessions when the Devils join the AFL in 2028.

“It’s critically important,” Riewoldt said. “Your recruiter is right up there with the most important person at the club.

“They (Richmond) have done a great job. I know the team down there pretty well. They’re really comfortable with who they’ve drafted. There’s a couple of kids still to come in that they think are going to be really good players.”

Richmond’s clash against North Melbourne will be an intriguing test of last year’s draft swap that saw the Kangaroos give up their first round pick in the 2025 Draft in exchange for key defender Matt Whitlock at pick 27.

It was a bold swap that could backfire if Richmond beat the Roos, meaning North’s first pick in this year’s draft would fall even further down into the twenties — a disastrous result for a team that has won just 16 out of their last 116 games.

The Matt Whitlock draft swap is yet to pay off for North Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

Meanwhile, Riewoldt said the jury is still out on Essendon’s rebuild, with hopes the likes of Nic Martin, Zach Reid, Sam Durham, Ben Hobbs, Nate Caddy and Archie Roberts can be the future of the Bombers.

“Where are Essendon at? I don’t think we have a real great guide on where they’re at yet,” Riewoldt said ahead of the Bombers’ clash against the Western Bulldogs on Fox Footy’s Super Saturday.

“I think they’re beating teams that they should beat. But this is their first real test while they’ve been in form.

“So we’ll find out more on Saturday night about where their defence, which has been really good, sits against a very good offensive team in the Western Bulldogs.”

The jury is still out on Essendon’s rebuild. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

There’s not a lot to smile about at the West Coast Eagles. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

West Coast is another team that is struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Recent Eagles draftees include Brady Hough, Bo Allan, Reuben Ginbey, Campbell Chesser and Elijah Hewett.

The Demons are developing Caleb Windsor, Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay to be the next generation of Clayton Oliver, Kozzie Pickett and Christian Petracca.

Hawthorn have recruited well and drafted talented youngsters Josh Weddle, Nick Watson, Cam McKenzie, James Worpel, Jai Newcombe Dylan Moore Will Day over the past decade.

Riewoldt is “loving” his media roles at Fox Footy as host of On The Couch and on the Super Saturday coverage, as his old side moves into a new era following premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

“It’s been good fun,” the Tigers great said.

“On The Couch has been quite daunting, but also good fun. It’s been really cool. Super Saturday’s been great fun. It’s a lot of footy. They sort of go in hand pretty well because they get to watch a lot of footy on a Saturday and then talk about it on a Monday.”

Originally published as AFL club’s turnaround puts rivals to shame as massive gamble backfires