How Many AFL Games Does a Richmond Kid Get Before ‘He’s Young’ Stops Being the Answer?
Richmond began 2026 with one of the AFL’s biggest groups of players below 50 games, so patience was always going to be part of the season. Young footballers need exposure before patterns, roles and decisions become familiar at AFL speed.
But “he’s young” can cover very different development stories. Twenty continuous games in one role are not the same as 20 scattered across injuries and position changes. A teenager and a mature-age debutant can have the same AFL games tally while carrying completely different football experience.
The question Tiger supporters should be asking is simple: how many AFL games should a Richmond youngster receive before youth stops being a sufficient explanation and the club needs clearer proof of progress?
Is 50 games actually useful, or only convenient shorthand? What should Richmond reasonably expect at 20, 40 or 60 games? And when injuries, role changes or team instability distort the clock, what evidence should replace the raw number?
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