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0 AFL legend Leigh Matthews has delivered a blunt assessment on Richmond’s woes, declaring “they looked horrible” in a 39-point loss to the Suns.
The Tigers were blown off the park on the Gold Coast with former coach Damien Hardwick scoring his first win in charge of the Suns.
A second half fightback helped Richmond add some respectability to the score but the damage had been well and truly done early.
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It’s a fall from grace for the Tigers, considering their incredible run with premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
The wheels fell off in 2021 when they finished 12th before returning to finals the next year and losing an elimination final. In 2023, they finished 13th.
Matthews, who coached the Lions to a three-peat from 2001 to 2003, experienced a similar decline at Brisbane after the premiership years.
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The 72-year-old explained there’s a “really difficult” reality that comes for a side who are dominant for a significant period of time.
“That post-premiership era for players is really difficult and I was watching the Suns and Richmond last Saturday afternoon and the Suns were fantastic … and Richmond, they just looked horrible really,” he told 3AW’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“They had no energy and just couldn’t get anything going.”
From Richmond’s 2020 grand final winning team, the Tigers had 11 players feature in the match against the Suns who were Dylan Grimes, Noah Balta, Liam Baker, Nick Vlastuin, Kamdyn McIntosh, Dion Prestia, Marlion Pickett, Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Jayden Short and Nathan Broad. Dustin Martin, Tom Lynch and Toby Nankervis were also ruled out for the Opening Round clash.
Matthews believes those players are being impacted by the struggles around them.
“They have half the team who are now playing in a team that’s struggling,” he said.
“They were playing in a team that’s winning mostly and thinking we’re one of the dominant, top teams in the competition and now when that’s all of a sudden not the case, and I saw it in the post-premiership era at the Lions.
“Those same players that were good in the premiership teams all of a sudden couldn’t reproduce when they didn’t have as many top players around them.”
The four-time AFL premiership winning coach added the reality for Tigers fans is they’re already behind the pack when it comes to the top teams of the competition.
“They’ve dropped out of the top echelon, the thing is can you rebound back in and that is their challenge,” he said.
“I think it’s a challenge that’s almost insurmountable, I suspect.”
