Cut, Not Finished: A Tiger Gets Another Crack Somewhere Else

So another one’s gone and found a landing pad before the removalists have even finished packing up Punt Road for the summer. A delisted Richmond small forward has reportedly secured himself a train-on spot at a rival club, which is either a lovely feel-good story or a small, pointed reminder of how these things work. I’d say it’s a bit of both, and if you’ve followed this footy club for more than about four minutes you’ll know we specialise in both.

Twenty games this year. Not nothing. Not a lot, either, in the grand scheme of a list that’s been getting quietly rebuilt behind closed doors while the senior group tries to remember what finals football smells like. He kicked some goals, he pressured blokes into mistakes, he did the small forward things that small forwards do — chase, harass, snap one from a pocket that had no right going through. And then, like a lot of blokes before him, he got the call that nobody wants and everybody at this club has had to make at some point in the last decade.

The brutal arithmetic of list management

Here’s the thing about being a small forward at an AFL club in 2026 — there’s about fifteen of them on every list and only about six spots that matter come September. It is not personal, even though it feels personal, even though it is incredibly personal to the bloke standing in the exit meeting being told the club is