Richmond’s national recruiting manager Matthew Clarke has taken great pride in the impact Noah Cumberland had at senior level for the Tigers during the second half of the 2022 season.
Cumberland, selected by Richmond with its second pick (No. 43 overall) in the 2019 AFL national draft, made his senior debut as the unactivated medical substitute against Sydney at the SCG in Round 11.
He subsequently got his first AFL game time in the Round 16 clash with Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium.
By the end of the season, the 21-year-old, left-foot, medium-sized forward had booted 19 goals and stamped himself as a hot prospect at the game’s highest level.
“He’d been doing it at VFL level for a bit of time . . . kicking his twos and threes (goals), but probably never having a huge breakout game,” Clarke said on the final episode for the year of the Club’s podcast Talking Tigers.
“It was really exciting to see and really pleasing for Noah.
“He’s been through a bit since he got here with a knee injury (an ACL) . . .
“He’s always been able to get himself fit and train and prepare, but he just needed that little opening.
“He got it and was able to run with it.
“It added a different sort of dynamic to the forward line.”
