Under the Hood: Roary’s Richmond FC News Pipeline

This article lifts the veil on Roary’s end-to-end workflow for delivering your daily Richmond news. From harvesting 50+ news feeds and enforcing a strict 24-hour freshness window, to AI-driven relevance scoring, deduplication, human QA, and seamless delivery into our Canvas and Facebook group, you’ll know exactly how every Tiger-specific story lands in your inbox.

Ever wondered how RTSSG compiles your Tiger news?From the moment a goal is kicked, or a trade rumour breaks, how does it end up in your inbox—fresh, relevant, and uncannily “on point”?

Curious how we ensure every story is both brand-new and fan-focused?

We’re talking 50+ feeds, AI-powered filtering, real-time health checks, human QA, and an express link to your Facebook feed—all by 9 AM AEST.

1. Introduction: Why We Do It

You expect the best from RTSSG—and we deliver. No more outdated articles, broken links, or generic AFL chatter. Our automated briefing gives you exactly what you want: every single Tiger-specific story, at 9 AM AEST, sharp and to the point.

2. Automated Content Harvesting: Casting the Net Wide

2.1 Core News Outlets (50+ Feeds)

• Major Media: AFL.com.au, The Age, Herald Sun, Fox Footy

• Data & Stats: Champion Data, FootyWire

• Recruitment & Development: RookieMe, ZeroHanger

• Official Club Channels: richmondfc.com.au, AFLW.com.au, VFL/VFLW sites

• RTSSG Originals: RTSSG articles, videos, podcasts, “P.A.’s Stuff” newsletter

  
  

2.2 Niche & Regional Add-Ons

• Specialist Analytics: The Arc, Inside Stories

• Local Community Papers: Geelong Advertiser, Ballarat Courier, The Examiner (TAS)

• Broadcasters: 3AW, SEN, RSN

• Fan Forums & Social Media: BigFooty’s Tigerland, r/AFLX, Richmond FC’s Twitter/Instagram/YouTube/TikTok just to name a few.

We don’t miss a beat—every source that could carry Tiger news is polled around the clock.

3. Enforcing Freshness: The 24-Hour Cut-Off

3.1 Strict Timestamp Filtering . Every day, we purge anything older than 24 hours—no exceptions.

3.2 Metadata VerificationIf an RSS feed lies about dates, we cross-check on-page metadata (<time> tags, HTML headers) to ensure genuine recency.

4. Ensuring Relevance: Keyword & AI Scoring

4.1 Expanded Keyword LibraryWe scan for terms like “Richmond,” “Punt Road,” “Tigers,” coach/player names (Yze, Lynch, Prestia), plus emerging stars (Hotton, Lalor, Gibcus).

4.2 NLP-Powered RelevanceOur AI scores each story:

• High: ≥3 Tiger-specific mentions in context

• Low: Passing references or generic AFL coverage (dropped)

Only true Richmond stories make the cut.

5. Prioritizing & Deduplicating: Crafting the Top 50

5.1 Dynamic Source WeightingActive feeds get polled more frequently; quiet ones get bumped down to avoid wasted cycles.

5.2 Deduplication LogicIf the same AAP story appears in multiple outlets, we keep only the richest version (best metadata, images, author credit).

5.3 Final SelectionFrom the filtered pool, we rank by relevance score, source priority, and timestamp—then pick the top 50 unique stories.

6. Real-Time Health Check: Dashboard & Alerts

Our internal dashboard shows:

• Last successful fetch per source

• Number of Richmond stories contributed

• Any parser or fetch errors

Automated Alerts notify us if:

• Fewer than 50 unique stories exist

• A previously active feed goes silent for 24+ hours

  
  

7. Manual Override: “Deep-Dive Now” Button

Content lead (FIO) can hit “Deep-Dive Now” on demand to:

• Re-crawl all sources immediately

• Pull in late-breaking news (e.g., surprise injury at 8:45 AM)

• Instantly refresh the Top 50 list

  
  

8. Automated Summary Generation: “Give You Our Take”

8.1 One-Paragraph Summaries

• Bold headline

• Context: what happened, where, key stats

• Our take: why it matters to Tigers fans

• [Read more] link

8.2 RTSSG Tone Clear, direct, fan-centric (“The Tigers stormed home,” not “Richmond displayed some form”).

9. Quick QA & Feedback Loop

9.1 FIO’s Lightning Review A rapid skim catches any errors or off-tone items.

9.2 Real-Time Learning Every thumbs-up/thumbs-down feedback refines our AI’s future scoring and selection.

10. Canvas Delivery & Facebook Tease

10.1 Editable Canvas Drop At 9 AM, the full 50-story briefing auto-drops into our shared Canvas for final tweaks.

10.2 Facebook Group Post Moments later, we publish a teaser: top 5–7 items, a TL;DR carousel, and a link to the full Canvas.

11. Weekly Maintenance & Audits

Every Sunday, we auto-generate a Feed Health & Relevance Report:

• Top/least contributors

• Parser failures or dead URLs

• Keyword performance metrics

We then add new sources, retire underperformers, and tweak keywords/rules.

12. Why This Matters for You

• 0 Minutes Lost: No more endless scrolling—every story you need lands in one place at 9 AM.

• 100% Relevance: Freshness rules and smart filtering mean you only see Tiger news.

• Fan-Powered Voice: Our “give you our take” summaries speak your language—no dry wire copy.

• Transparent & Adaptive: You see the process, influence it with feedback, and watch us evolve.

  
  

That’s how we do it and its only getting better! Welcome to the new world!

RTSSG.com: Richmond News By Richmond People For Richmond People!