HERALD SUN - Jon Ralph, September 10, 2022
Just how far can the additions of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper take Richmond? Take a look at the Tigers’ best 22 for 2023 and tell us what you think.
Next season Jack Riewoldt will play at Richmond on a contract as much as $175,000 less than former Tiger Callum Coleman-Jones, who landed at Arden St this year.For comparison, Riewoldt has three flags, three Coleman Medals, 11 Richmond goalkicking trophies and 755 goals to Coleman-Jones’ 19 games and 16 goals.
As Riewoldt said on Friday, the chase for the flag is one of the primary reasons he is playing on, having confided to good mate Richie Porte on a charity bike ride over summer this would be his last year.
But it is another example of the chasm between the AFL’s haves and have nots, with Riewoldt prepared to play for $300,000 and the Tigers using the 2022 second-round pick they secured for Coleman-Jones to help nab GWS mids Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
The Tigers already look top-four bound next year, and what is to say in 2025, when Dustin Martin’s $1.3 million falls off their books, they won’t go out and find another Tom Lynch-style free agent to succeed him.
So Richmond are the big winners already from the trade period.
Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper are set to join the Tigers. Picture: Phil Hillyard
And yet surely by the time the Roos are handed a suite of picks from their special assistance request, the AFL will have recognised the extraordinary equalisation challenge the league is facing.
Whether it is a priority selection before the No.1 overall draft selection or a suite of early mid-first-round or end-of-first-round picks, the league will be fully aware of the dangers of doing too little.
The draft and salary cap are supposed to create a boom-bust cycle, but on current draft position the Roos will take picks one and 55 to the draft after a two-win year and Richmond will add Hopper and Taranto and also try to draft a developing young tall.
Richmond’s Best 22 In Round 1 2023
FB: Robbie Tarrant, Noah Balta, Nathan BroadHB: Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes, Daniel Rioli
C: Jayden Short, Tim Taranto, Kamdyn McIntosh
HB: Shai Bolton, Jack Riewoldt, Maurice Rioli
F: Dustin Martin, Tom Lynch, Noah Cumberland
R: Toby Nankervis, Dion Prestia, Jacob Hopper
INT: Liam Baker, Ben Miller, Marlion Pickett, Trent Cotchin, Tyler Sonsie
EMERG: Josh Gibcus, Jack Ross, Jack Graham, Hugo Ralphsmith
The AFL will have to think seriously about the Roos securing a pre-draft priority pick to secure the best two kids in the land if they actually want them to improve quickly enough to be competitive as the vast TV rights deal kicks in for 2025.
After all, the AFL is nothing if it is not a money-making organisation and it will be desperate for nine competitive games in coming years before Tasmania enters the competition as early as 2026.
Not only are Gold Coast and GWS gutted by established clubs on a yearly basis —Hopper and Taranto join Suns star Izak Rankine in moving back to traditional teams — the old national draft mechanism just doesn’t work like it used to.
Richmond win the 2017 flag and 12 months later add Gold Coast free agent Lynch.
Then they prey on the Giants salary cap weakness — created by the lack of COLA and huge rival offers for established stars — to drag out Taranto and Hopper.
Jack Riewoldt is staying at Richmond on a cut-price deal. Picture: Getty Images)
Hopper wants to come to the bright lights of Richmond and who could blame him after he played in front of crowds of 9010, 7772 and 7338 in three of his last five GWS games.
Some of the Giants’ salary cap issues are self-inflicted, but as the AFL considers North Melbourne’s priority pick submission in Grand Final week Richmond’s trade heist will surely weigh heavily on the minds of the AFL.
DETAIL IN TIGERS’ HOPPER OFFER CATS REFUSED TO MATCH
Greater Western Sydney star Jacob Hopper has chosen Richmond as his preferred trade destination with the emerging star keen to join the Tigers on a seven-year deal.
Hopper is set to be part of an astonishing trade double act that will see the Tigers recharge their midfield with Hopper hopeful GWS will grant him a trade request to join his mate Tim Taranto.
Geelong had been a strong suitor for Hopper, who is a GWS academy player growing up in the small Riverine town of Leeton but boarded in Ballarat while at St Patrick’s College.
But the Tigers are believed to have pitched a more lucrative deal and have also offered seven seasons, which the Cats were not prepared to match.
The Cats will now plan their next move and are still keen on GWS teammate Tanner Bruhn, unwilling to significantly up their offer given they pay players in fairly strict bands to ensure fairness across the list.
Jacob Hopper is hoping to join Richmond during the trade period. Picture: Getty Images
Hopper headed overseas on Thursday morning and before that his management firm Connors Sports informed the Cats that if he moved the Tigers would be his likely home instead of them.
But unlike the uncontracted Taranto Hopper has a deal through to 2023 so Richmond will have to stump up a significant deal involving multiple picks or he will remain at GWS.
Richmond has long believed it could secure one of the Giants midfielders given the tight salary cap that GWS is trying to rectify this year.
But to secure both Taranto and Hopper will immediately put the Tigers back in as premiership contenders if it can orchestrate trades for the pair.
It seems likely Richmond will have to hand over most of picks 12, 19, 30 and next year’s future first-rounder for the pair and potentially throw in a player like ruckman Ivan Soldo.
GWS will ask for two first rounders for Taranto but the market for experienced mids of his quality in recent years has normally been two first-rounders with a second-rounder handed back.
What will Richmond need to give up in trades for Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto?
Picks 12, 19 and a future-firstPicks 12, 19, a future-first and player
Picks 12 and 19
Pick 12 and a future first-round pick
Another combination of players/picks
Richmond believes Taranto’s vast tank will allow him to play as a more defensive mid who wins key stoppages but then can two-way run and allow Shai Bolton and Dustin Martin to play a more offensive role.
Hopper, a former No. 7 draft pick, had his 2022 season ruined by a knee injury but last year averaged 26 disposals, 98 ranking points, 12 contested possessions and 6.3 stoppages a game.
At only 25 the Tigers will believe they can get 150 exceptional games from him and keep their premiership window wide open.
For Geelong the decision is a setback but the emergence of Max Holmes and Tom Atkins as an inside midfielder means they will not be short of midfield options.
Bruhn, a number 12 draft pick at GWS, has interest from Hawthorn, North Melbourne and the Cats but has plenty of time to decide his future.
Jacob Hopper wants to be traded to Richmond.
