What Does Josh Smillie’s Growth Change About His Richmond Role?

Read the full RTSSG investigationTHE GIANT WE HAVEN’T SEEN YET… AND WHY IT MATTERS ⚫🟡 began with a visible Richmond story and followed the question underneath it.

Josh Smillie’s physical growth makes his upside more intriguing but also changes the role question. Richmond has to decide whether size becomes a midfield weapon, a positional complication or the start of something more flexible.

The question beneath the story

When a midfielder grows to almost ruckman size before establishing himself at AFL level, does Richmond still have the same player it drafted?

This public companion preserves that question without giving away the member feature’s resolved conclusion.

What RTSSG investigated

What traits made Smillie a top-seven draft prospect?

How does extra height change his movement and matchup profile?

Can Richmond preserve his midfield identity while using his size elsewhere?

What should his first AFL role ask him to prove?

Could physical growth alter the player-development timetable?

Taken together, those questions turn a headline, selection, contract or club statement into something more useful: a test of what Richmond is building and what the evidence should mean. The full feature follows that chain to the answer.

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Read the full RTSSG feature: Read the full RTSSG investigation

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