Richmond has the opportunity in this Saturday’s AFL Grand Final to confirm their status as the competition’s indisputably best team of the last three seasons.

After the Tigers spent years in the competitive wilderness, existing as the butt of so many jokes, coach Damian Hardwick has moulded a squad - and created a game plan - which is now the envy of so many teams across the AFL.

From a club which contested just two finals series from thirty seasons between 1983 and 2012, (famously finishing 9^th no less than six times in that period) the Tigers have emerged as one of the league’s most feared entities in recent years.

While a second premiership in three seasons would rubber-stamp their dominance, making the finals in six of the last seven seasons, as well as three straight Preliminary Finals has already solidified their place at the top of the sport.

AFL GRAND FINAL PREDICTIONS: Richmond v GWS Match Predictions

So how have the Tigers launched themselves into such a formidable force, creating a game style which so many want to emulate?

DEFENCE

When Alex Rance went down with an opening-round knee injury which ultimately cost the star defender his season, many believed it would present an insurmountable hurdle to Richmond’s capacity to maintain their premiership contention.

In Rance, we're dealing with a five-time all Australian, whose 837 intercept possessions over the previous four seasons not only led the league by a significant margin but set up so much of what the Tigers wanted to do from a structural perspective.

Indeed, the Tigers struggled in the immediate aftermath of the Rance loss, blown out by Collingwood and the GWS Giants in Rounds 2 and 3 respectively, while conceding more than 100 points in consecutive games for the first time since late 2016.

Yet the Tiger’s defence was able to stabilise over the course of the season after re-configuring their personnel and structure.

<ad>

They’ve kept their opposition to less than 100 points in 21 of their last 22 games, while once again emerging as the competition’s #1 points-per-game defence.

During their current 11-game win streak, Richmond has given up on average just 63.3 points per game, while conceding more than 70 points just once.

Replacing Rance’s presence in the Tiger backline was never going to be easy, however, Richmond has thrived via a committee of backmen who’ve been exceptionally consistent in their duties.

Nick Vlaustin and Dylan Grimes have combined for 338 intercept possessions, with both ranked in the league’s top ten for that metric, while Grimes’ season was rewarded with a well-deserved first All-Australian jersey last month.

Coming out of defence, too, the Tigers are one of the cleanest teams with ball in hand. Bachar Houli also earned his first-ever All-Australian spot in 2019, averaging a career-high 27.9 disposals, while executing at a scintillating 80.2% disposal efficiency. He also led the team with 489 metres gained per match.

MIDFIELD

The Tigers midfield is one of the league’s most curious beasts in that despite its recognised star power, so many of the conventional metrics don't bear true to how incredibly good they are.

Not only did Richmond - for the first time since 2015 - not possess an All-Australian midfielder, but they were giving up, on average, 20 disposals per game to their opposition, the fourth-worst such mark in the league.

GWS: A Giant Force Awakens

They ranked 17^th in the competition for contested possession, conceding a -9 differential per game to their opponents, while their 34 clearances per game constituted the league’s very worst mark.

On the face of it, the Tigers present - statistically, at least - as a team who neither gets their hands on the ball, while also consistently beaten at the coalface - to say nothing of the 31.8 hit-outs they averaged in 2019 which was only good enough for 15^th in the AFL.

Yet, in this case, conventional statistics do only show so much, with underlying metrics providing a clearer picture on just where Richmond have thrived in 2019.

They are #5 in the league for 'one percent acts' per match, while their per game tackle differential sits at a league-best +7. The intense pressure in midfield meant further protection for their defence, as the Tigers were one of just five teams in the league to concede less than 50 inside 50’s per game.

The Tigers modus operandi is that they will harass you into making mistakes when you have the ball, comfortable they’ll be able to get it back and use their skill on the rebound to create scoring opportunities going the other way.

While Brownlow Medalists Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin are the highest profiled members of the Tiger midfield, it’s actually Dion Prestia who has most consistently embodied what Richmond want to achieve in there.

Prestia was one of just three players in the league, along with Melbourne's Clayton Oliver and the Giants' Tim Taranto, to amass more than 500 possessions while also being responsible for more than 600 pressure acts in 2019.

<ad>

The Tigers are the pioneers of ‘surge ball’ an entire mantra about continually moving the ball forward and winning the territorial battle, with Brisbane's 2019 resurgence very much borrowing from the Tiger template.

Over the course of the season, Richmond has averaged 5965 meters gained per match which leads the league. They were number one in the league in 2018 as well, averaging 6088 per game, while in their 2017 AFL Premiership year they were ranked fourth.

The Tigers aren’t always pretty to watch as their game is predicated much more on industry than finesse, however, it is a game plan which has served them brilliantly these last few years and could work as the deciding factor where claiming yet another AFL Premiership is concerned.

FORWARD

The Tigers forward structure is all about efficiency. As they’re not a high possession team, their attack is based - not dissimilarly to the West Coast Eagles - upon getting the ball in quickly, and as deep as possible, to maximise their two power forwards in Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt.

When Lynch and Riewoldt aren’t able to take the mark, the Tigers have a collection of some of the most menacing small forwards in the competition, led by the likes of Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna and Shai Bolton who all average around one goal per game while applying immense tackling pressure in front of goal.

And it’s because of that tackling pressure which allows Richmond to be such a potent force when the ball is indeed inside their forward arc.

In the first-week Qualifying Final victory over the Lions at the Gabba, the Tigers scored one goal for every three inside 50's, while in Friday night’s Preliminary Final, this was again a deciding factor, scoring a goal every 4.67 entries, compared with the Cats at every 5.67 forward entries.

The Tigers made the league’s biggest free-agent acquisition last off-season by landing Lynch, who has rounded into season-best form late, and who has once again emerged as one of the league’s premier key forwards.

While Richmond’s’ marks inside 50 have been down in recent seasons, they’ve seen a sharp uptake in the second half of the year to correlate with Lynch's increased output, with the 18 Tiger marks inside 50 against Geelong on Friday night representing their third biggest return on the season.

According to Stat Insider's shot charting metrics, Richmond's ability to get the ball inside their 50 - and into the arms of Lynch and Riewoldt - allowed it to generate 295 set shot opportunities in 2019 while converting 54% of their chances once there. 

Their direct approach also led to 134 shots from short range (0-24 metres from the goal line), which was the highest mark in the entire league. Not coincidently, 65% of Richmond's shots were taken directly in front of goal, as opposed to a more acute angle, which is further evidence of the Tigers' plan to go sharp and direct through the middle. 

The next best mark in the league was West Coast at 62%.

CONCLUSION

Richmond’s season could absolutely have gone south after the Rance injury in Round 1, but it is a testament to such a smart and focused football department that they’ve returned to the sport’s biggest stage to hunt their second premiership in three seasons, and twelfth in Richmond Football Club history.

AFL GRAND FINAL PREDICTIONS: Richmond v GWS Match Predictions

For a club who for so long was a league-wide laughing stock to have turned into a contemporary juggernaut is not only a great story, but an excellent lesson for so many clubs marooned in mediocrity.

Did you enjoy this article? Leave a comment below, or join the conversation on the Stats Insider Twitter or Facebook page.