SEASON 27: Richmond Used 39 Players in 2026. Can Its Game Plan Survive the 30th Player in 2027?
We've just dropped another deep dive feature called SEASON 27: Richmond Used 39 Players in 2026. Can Its Game Plan Survive the 30th Player in 2027? on rtssg.com... Richmond used 39 players in 2026. That can be read as an injury number, but it also leaves a harder question about how much of a game plan belongs to the best 23 — and how much survives when the next names are called.
The question Tiger supporters should be asking is simple:
Can Richmond’s 2027 system still look like Richmond’s when the 30th player on the list has to perform a job?
Because that's exactly what this feature examines.
What should functional depth actually mean? Which roles can be replaced by versatility, and which ones demand genuine like-for-like cover?
In the article we break down:
• why 39 players is more than an injury statistic
• the difference between list depth and functional depth
• what the 24th-to-30th player test really asks of a rebuilding side
• which jobs must survive when preferred players disappear
• whether role clarity can travel from VFL football into the AFL side
• how normal injuries expose the portability of a game plan
• where generic versatility helps — and where it can hide a structural gap
• how Richmond should think about replacement functions rather than replacement names
• what 2026 may have revealed beneath the availability crisis
• why development has to prepare players for jobs before Thursday-night selection demands them
• what a recognisable Richmond system should still look like when the best 23 is unavailable
• the 2027 depth test supporters can watch before the injury list becomes an excuse again
And that's only the start.
This is not a ranking of Richmond’s best 23. It is a deeper test of whether the football Richmond wants to play can survive the ordinary attrition every AFL season brings.
Read the full feature now on rtssg.com
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