Throughout the past six decades there has been a key common dominator in Richmond’s rise from the low rungs of the league ladder to sustained premiership success. In the countdown to the 2024 AFL national draft, we have been running a special three-part series on how, historically, the Tigers have reaped the rewards of investing in youthful talent coming through the ranks at Punt Road together. We conclude today with the Club’s most recent golden era.
The first seeds of Richmond’s recent glorious dynasty were sown in November 2006.
That’s when the Tigers snared two talented, young players from interstate in the AFL national draft who would become pivotal members of the three premiership teams under Damien Hardwick’s coaching guidance.
Jack Riewoldt, a dynamic key forward from Tasmanian club Clarence, was taken by Richmond with its first pick in the draft (No. 13 overall), while Shane Edwards, a lightly-framed, but highly-skilled wingman from South Australian club North Adelaide, was selected with its second pick (No. 26 overall).
It was Edwards who made his senior debut with the Tigers first – in Round 4 of the 2007 season against Western Bulldogs at the MCG.
The 18-year-old played 16 games that season and showed plenty of promise.
As the years went by, Edwards’ importance within the Richmond line-up steadily increased and he was a valuable contributor in a variety of roles for the team.
By the time the Tigers broke their 37-year premiership drought in 2017, Edwards was a genuine star.
He had developed into a superb, creative playmaker, continually making Tiger teammates better through his slick disposal.
Score involvements were his forte and he consistently featured up the top of this key statistical category among Richmond players.
Stats alone, however, didn’t do justice to the numerous brilliant passages of play that Edwards managed to produce – the lightning fast, pinpoint handpasses, perfectly weighted foot passes, deft tap-ons, plus his capacity to cleverly sidestep opponents, and seemingly have so much time with ball in hand.
Edwards possessed electric pace, but not only was he quick of foot, he was quick of mind, always appearing one step ahead of the play.
He was rewarded for his excellent form in 2018 with an inaugural All-Australian blazer, and had a career-best, second-placed, Jack Dyer Medal finish in Richmond’s 2019 premiership year.
The 2022 season was the final one of Edwards’ illustrious playing career at Tigerland. He finished on 303 games, with 189 goals and those three precious premiership medals.
Riewoldt’s senior debut with the Tigers came in the 2007 ‘Dreamtime at the G’ match against Essendon, at 18 years of age.
He played eight games all-up that season, kicking seven goals, finished with 18 goals from 18 games in 2009, and then scored 32 goals in 20 games the following year.
It was in the 2010 season that Riewoldt’s AFL career skyrocketed.
Under first-year senior coach Damien Hardwick, Riewoldt transformed into one of the competition’s leading players.
After a reasonable start to the season, with 15 goals in the first seven games, Riewoldt hit a piping-hot patch of form.
He kicked 43 goals in the next eight games, including a bag of 10 against West Coast at the MCG.
Riewoldt finished with 78 goals for the season, clinched the first of three Coleman Medals, as the competition’s leading goalkicker, and won an inaugural Jack Dyer Medal, along with selection in the All-Australian team.
His time with the Tigers went from strength to strength after that, and the part he played for the team in the three premierships was huge.
Although Riewoldt won a heap of individual awards throughout his distinguished AFL career (three Coleman Medals, three All-Australian blazers, two Jack Dyer Medals and leading club goalkicker 12 times), his influence at Tigerland extended way beyond his goalkicking deeds.
As Riewoldt matured, he became selfless in the way he went about his football on-field and focused on providing opportunities for teammates.
Riewoldt had an extremely high football IQ to go with his mobility, top-class marking ability and accurate kicking for goal.
When he retired at the end of the 2023 season, he’d played 347 games, kicked 798 goals (third most in the Club’s history), and earned a reputation as an all-time Tiger great.
The following year’s national draft again proved to be extremely fruitful for Richmond.
Despite finishing on the bottom of the ladder in 2007, the Tigers were denied the No. 1 pick in the draft due to the fact Carlton, who finished second last, qualified for a priority pick first.
It was a race in two between talented Northern Knights pair and best mates Matthew Kreuzer and Trent Cotchin for who would go No. 1.
As much as Richmond’s recruiting manager at the time Francis Jackson rated Kreuzer, he had his sights firmly set on securing Cotchin’s services.
Jackson was a happy man when he got word just before the draft that Carlton had committed to taking Kreuzer.
“I was always keen on Trent because I felt that his natural talent was unsurpassed,” Jackson said.
Cotchin debuted at senior level with the Tigers in Round 8 of the 2008 season against Geelong at the MCG.
On a cold, wet, miserable day, the talented 18-year-old midfielder was a ray of sunshine for Richmond, picking up 16 disposals and scoring two goals in a 30-point loss.
Cotchin’s first couple of years at the Club were tough as he battled a nagging Achilles issue, but by 2010 his fitness level had improved markedly.
Such was the high regard the Tigers held Cotchin in, he earned promotion to the playing leadership group for the 2010 season. Early that season, he took the captaincy reins when Chris Newman was sidelined for a game with an injury.
The following year, Cotchin won an inaugural Jack Dyer Medal and then, in 2012, he enjoyed the best individual season of his AFL career.
He averaged a career-high 27.6 disposals, won a second successive Jack Dyer Medal, was selected in the All-Australian team, and became Richmond’s first Brownlow Medallist since Ian Stewart in 1971.
Cotchin took over as the Tigers captain the next season and worked his way into the role in grand style, sacrificing brilliant elements of his own game for the overall betterment of the team.
When Richmond broke its long premiership drought in 2017, Cotchin was such a significant factor in that glorious triumph with his inspirational leadership and single-minded determination to lift the Tigers to great heights.
Cotchin set the tone for the golden Yellow and Black era with his strong and bold style of play through the midfield.
As captain, he was an ideal combination of courage, composure and rich, natural talent.
When Cotchin retired at the end of the 2023 season, he had racked up 306 games, kicked 141 goals, won three Jack Dyer Medals and, most importantly, led Richmond to three premierships in his nine-year tenure as captain.
The other young gun the Tigers recruited in that 2007 national draft was athletic key defender Alex Rance, from WAFL club Swan Districts, the son of former Footscray and West Coast star Murray Rance.
Richmond secured Rance’s services with the priority pick it had been awarded at the end of the first round of the draft after finishing last in 2007.
At one stage Rance was being mooted as a potential top-10 selection in the 2007 national draft, so the Tigers were over the moon that he slipped through to them at pick 18 overall.
Rance had a slow start to his playing career at Tigerland and didn’t make his senior debut until Round 2 of the 2009 season against Geelong at Kardinia Park.
To his utmost credit, Rance worked extremely hard to eventually become the competition’s premier key defender and one of the best in the game’s history.
He combined elite athletic traits with bravery, boldness and a fierce competitive nature.
Rance consistently negated the opposition’s best key forwards in one-on-one duels, yet also relished the opportunity to run off them and launch counter-attacks for the team.
He was especially revered for his incredible intercept ability.
At times, it looked like he’d formed an impenetrable, one-man wall across Richmond’s backline, such was his dominance.
In 2014, Rance gained All-Australian selection for the first time. It was an honour that was bestowed upon him for the following four years as well, underlining the enormous impact he had in his key defensive role with Richmond.
Rance won the 2015 Jack Dyer Medal and he was a mighty factor for the Tigers two years later when they broke their lengthy premiership drought.
Although Rance decided to retire from AFL football at just 30 years of age, he had achieved so much throughout his 200-game career with Richmond and left an indelible legacy at the Club.
Richmond recruiting manager Francis Jackson had some sleepless nights approaching the 2009 national draft.
The Tigers had pick three in the draft and Jackson was extremely keen on powerfully-built, highly-skilled, teenage Castlemaine midfielder Dustin Martin.
But Melbourne had the first two draft selections after finishing with the wooden spoon in the ’09 season and qualifying for a priority pick.
So, Jackson was forced to sweat it out until draft night, when the Demons called out Tom Scully’s name at pick one, followed by Jack Trengove with their second selection.
Jackson, consequently, couldn’t call Dustin Martin’s name out quickly enough at pick three overall in the ’09 national draft.
It soon became crystal clear why Jackson was so keen on Martin.
The 18-year-old made an impressive debut with Richmond in the opening round of the 2010 season against Carlton at the MCG, picking up 18 disposals.
He played 21 games that season, averaged just over 20 disposals per match and finished fourth in the Club’s Best and Fairest award.
From that first season of his AFL career, until 2022, Martin only once finished outside the top six in the Jack Dyer Medal (equal 10th in 2012), which highlights just how remarkably consistent he was throughout his time at Tigerland.
Martin won his inaugural Jack Dyer Medal in 2016 and also gained All-Australian selection that year.
It was the following season, however, where Martin totally took the competition by storm.
What he achieved in the 2017 season was extraordinary – a Brownlow Medal, a second Jack Dyer Medal, the AFL Coaches Association’s Champion Player of the Year award, the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground in the Grand Final, the Gary Ayres Medal for best player of the finals series and, most importantly, a premiership medal.
He averaged 29.8 disposals per game, kicked 37 goals, and was the chief catalyst for Richmond breaking its 37-year premiership drought with a stunning Grand Final triumph over Adelaide.
Richmond’s 2017 premiership team contained several other outright stars and some very valuable role players. But it was Martin who ignited the Tigers with his awesome power, exquisite football skills and fanatical will-to-win.
That Dusty-inspired drought-breaking premiership was magnificent enough, however there was so much more to come from him.
Back-to-back flags in 2019-20, on the back of back-to-back brilliant, Norm Smith-winning performances by Martin against Greater Western Sydney in the ’19 Grand Final and Geelong in the ’20 GF, sent the Tiger Army into seventh heaven.
Martin, who retired from AFL football late in the 2024 season following an outstanding 302-game career with 338 goals, was the consummate match-winner – a player who struck fear into the minds of opponents, particularly when stationed deep forward.
He was the best offensive one-on-one player in the competition for many years. One-out inside 50 he was a weapon of mass destruction for the Tigers.
As a midfielder, he was a raging bull, utilising his trademark ‘Don’t argue’ to fend off opponents and setting up an abundant supply of opportunities for teammates, particularly through his penetrating, pinpoint-accurate kicks.
Notwithstanding the numerous individual awards Martin won throughout his AFL career, he remained totally team focused.
Richmond winning was all that mattered to him, and he contributed enormously to ensure that happened on a consistent basis.
Dylan Grimes, a lightly-framed, 193cm key defender from the Northern Knights, was overlooked in the 2009 AFL national draft, but subsequently joined Richmond a couple of weeks later via the second pick in the pre-season draft.
Grimes didn’t make his senior debut with the Tigers until the final round of the 2010 season against Port Adelaide at Marvel Stadium, and he was then severely hampered with persistent hamstring injuries for the next three years.
From 2011 to 2013, he managed only 25 games and at one stage it seemed that his AFL career might have been finished extremely prematurely.
Thankfully, however, Grimes was able to overcome his hamstring issues, and he became a key defensive pillar in Richmond’s line-up from 2014 onwards.
Grimes was an ever-reliable backman who had the impressive versatility to play on, and nullify, either dangerous opposition tall forwards or small forwards, given his ability in the air, as well as at ground level.
He was brave, read the play superbly, had excellent closing speed, plenty of poise, was solid overhead, used the ball efficiently and, as his career wore on, found the right balance between defence and attack.
Grimes did not miss a game in the Tigers’ drought-breaking 2017 premiership season and finished fifth in the Jack Dyer Medal that year.
Over the course of the next three seasons, with Richmond the dominant force in the competition, Grimes played an even more important role in the team’s success.
When the Tigers’ premier key defender Alex Rance suffered a serious knee injury in the opening round of 2019 that sidelined him for the rest of the season, and he then retired from AFL football at the end of the year, Grimes stepped up superbly in his absence.
He took over as the general of Richmond’s defence and immediately thrived on the extra responsibility.
By the end of the 2019 season, Grimes had an inaugural All-Australian blazer and a second premiership medal.
Grimes became a triple premiership player in 2020, before fittingly winning the 2021 Jack Dyer Medal, having finished inside the top 10 of the count for the six previous seasons.
He retired at the end of the 2024 season following a first-rate 234-game career with the Tigers.
