Richmond won’t be able to compete with the top teams come September, Fox Footy’s Cameron Mooney has warned after the Tigers suffered a 14-point loss to Collingwood on Friday night.
The Tigers kicked just one goal for the first half as the match was essentially played in the Magpies forward half.
Mooney said the Tigers “should have been absolutely belted” as a wayward Collingwood blew plenty of chances to finish with 8.15.
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“23 shots to 14 … I think they got away with one not being absolutely smashed,” he said on Fox Footy Live.
“I think when they are playing the absolutely best teams in the competition, that’s what you are going to see.
“I don’t think they’re going to match it with those top teams. I still think they’ll play finals but be in the bottom half of the top eight.”
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The Tigers entered the match without Nathan Broad (suspension) and injured trio Dustin Martin, Jacob Hopper and Jayden Short, but Mooney said that mattered little.
“They weren’t missing anything else other than Dusty – Dusty’s your main man,” he said.
“I think your Hopper and (Tim) Tarantos weren’t about this year.
“I just look at Richmond and think everyone thought this was going to be a premiership team or premiership chance and I just didn’t see it.
“I just think tonight showed me against the top teams, I don’t think they’re going to compete.”
Fellow Fox Footy Live panellists Nick Dal Sato and Brad Johnson agreed the Tigers were their worst enemy at the MCG in a match that started in wet conditions.
“They turned the ball over 28 times in defensive half,” Dal Santo lamented.
“They weren’t clean enough.
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“Some of them are just blatant clangers – they probably didn’t get punished as they normally would.”
“They were terrible by foot. Their exit from D50 was no good at all,” Johnson added.
Despite winning the clearance count, the Tigers had a whopping 81 turnovers for the match and took just nine marks inside 50 – the majority of those coming in the final quarter.
Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon described the Tigers as “unrecognisable” from their days as three-time premiers.
“It could have been a lot worse,” he said of the Collingwood loss.
“I don’t think they are the Richmond of (the past), they’re not going to maintain the standard of when they won three premierships in four (years).
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“Some of their guns, their most influential players are getting older and that’s just life.
“It’s going to happen to Jack (Riewoldt), it’s happening to Trent (Cotchin), Dylan Grimes.
“They’re not the players they once were.”
The Tigers now face a tough three weeks against the Western Bulldogs, who suddenly found form on Thursday night, the Swans in Adelaide for Gather Round and then Melbourne back at the MCG.
