Punt Road Shopping List: Five Deals That Actually Matter

Look, I’ve been a Richmond supporter long enough to know that rebuilds come in two flavours — the kind that actually work, and the kind that make you question why you ever handed your emotional wellbeing to a football club in the first place. Right now, we’re somewhere in the middle, squinting at the horizon and hoping the list management team has its reading glasses on.

The good news is that this trade period feels like it matters. Really matters. Not in the “we’ll pick up a depth midfielder and call it a win” sense, but in the actual, bones-of-the-list sense. So here are five Richmond Tigers trade targets who could genuinely shift the goalposts at Punt Road — and why each of them makes sense for where the club is headed.

1. A Contested Mid Who Can Win It Cleanly

Let’s not dance around it — Richmond’s midfield has looked a bit thin for a while now. Dion Prestia has been carrying more than his share of the load, Tim Taranto is finding his feet in yellow and black, but the brigade as a whole could do with a player who wins the hard ball and doesn’t need three teammates to arrive before he does something useful with it.

There are a handful of midfielders league-wide who’ve quietly flagged their desire for a fresh start. The Tigers should be in every conversation for that type. A genuine contested bull — someone who averages 20-plus disposals under pressure, wins clearances and can play high half-forward when the coach wants to rest him up — would transform Richmond’s engine room almost overnight. The ask will be significant in picks and possibly a player, but this is the position the club simply cannot scrimp on.

2. A Key Forward With Some Mongrel

Tom Lynch is Tom Lynch — glorious when he’s on, frustrating when he’s not, and apparently made of slightly more fragile material than the rest of us. The Tigers need someone alongside him who will put a body on the line, crumb at his feet and kick a goal when it matters rather than when the game is already settled.

There are key forwards currently at clubs who won’t play finals for at least two years sitting on lists, perfectly serviceable, a little underused. Richmond should be on the phone. Give me someone in their mid-twenties who still has that hunger and hasn’t quite got the recognition they deserve. The Tigers can offer them a proper shot alongside Lynch in a forward line that’s one reliable second option away from being genuinely dangerous again.

The fit matters as much as the talent here — Richmond’s forward structure lives and dies on the contest and the crumb. Anyone who wants to stand at the top of the square and demand the ball like he’s at a fancy restaurant won’t cut it.

3. An Athletic Half-Back Who Can Read Play

This one might be the most importnat piece of the puzzle, actually. The Tigers have needed a reading, intercept half-back who can run and carry and link the play since they lost that silky transition game that drove three premierships. You can’t just wish that into existence — you have to go and get it.

Think of the type: 185-190cm, quick over the first ten metres, loves the intercept mark, can hit targets by hand and foot going forward. Those players exist. Some of them are sitting behind other clubs’ depth charts wondering why they don’t get more of a run. Richmond’s recent history of extracting the best from undervalued players — looking at you, Marlion Pickett — suggests they’re not a bad landing spot for someone who needs a new environment and a clear role.

The half-back line is where so many of Richmond’s best attacking plays were born during the dynasty years. Rebuilding that corridor is non-negotiable if they want to play the brand that Punt Road is famous for.

4. A Small Forward Who Creates From Nothing

Every good team has one — a small forward who makes something out of absolutely nothing, who the opposition can never quite nail down, who kicks goals on the run and makes the coach look clever. Richmond has had a few of these over the years (hello, Daniel Rioli, we miss you) and the position has felt a little empty since.

This type of player rarely costs a top-ten pick, which is partly why clubs let them go — they’re undervalued on paper and invaluable in practice. The Tigers should be hunting exactly that. A nippy, left-field small forward from a club that doesn’t quite know what to do with them, who just needs space and teammates who’ll find him in the right positions.

There’s an argument Richmond could develop from within here too — and they should — but supplementing with a ready-made option who can play from round one would take enormous pressure off the younger kids trying to find their feet.

5. A Genuine Backup Ruck

Toby Nankervis has been a tireless servant and a proper Tiger. But the club needs genuine cover and competition at the position — not a forward who can ruck in an emergency and not a 21-year-old who’s been told “just do your best, mate.” A real, bona fide backup ruck who keeps Nankervis honest and can step in without the structure collapsing.

There are a couple of rucks at clubs who are clearly second-choice options, getting the run-on position roughly once every three weeks. They’re capable players. They’d love a more defined role. Richmond needs one of them. It’s not glamorous, and it won’t set the internet on fire, but the ruck stocks need bolstering before someone gets injured in round four and it all unravels.

What It All Means for the Tigers’ Rebuild

Now, I’m aware that listing five trade targets is the easy part. Actually executing on any of them — in a competition where every club is scrambling for the same types of players and Richmond’s pick currency is what it is — that’s the hard bit. Tim Livingstone and the list management crew will earn their money this off-season.

The framework is there. The coaching staff under Adem Yze has shown enough in the back half of the season to suggest the culture is still intact and the playing group still believes. What they need now is the raw material to make the belief mean something come September.

\p>Three flags in four years will buy you exactly this much goodwill — the expectation that you’ll do it right when it matters. Punt Road has been through the dark years before; the faithful know what patience looks like. But patience without a plan is just waiting, and waiting without the right trade targets is just hoping.

Richmond doesn’t do hope. We do belief, hard work and the occasional moment of absolute magic when everything clicks and you’re hugging a stranger in the outer. Let’s get the shopping list sorted and get back to that.