Why Would the Player Richmond Wants Choose Richmond Back?
Updated: Aug 30
The full RTSSG member feature ““Who Would Want to Come to Richmond?” When Did Rebuilding Become a Question of Richmond’s Attractiveness?” is available here.
Richmond supporters have spent months discussing what the list needs next: mature bodies, established footballers, positional help and players who can accelerate a young rebuild. But the full RTSSG member feature turns that familiar shopping-list discussion around.
Richmond finished 2026 with three wins. It has won ten home-and-away games across the past three seasons, changed enormous parts of its list and entered another offseason with obvious needs. Those are facts a prospective recruit can see just as clearly as a supporter can.
So what happens when the player Richmond wants starts assessing Richmond? Is “who should we recruit?” even the first question, or does the harder question become “why should that player choose us?”
How much does immediate ladder position matter to an established footballer with a finite number of prime seasons left? How much weight sits instead in role, contract length, family, coaching, facilities, teammates, opportunity and belief in where the club is heading?
Does the same Richmond pitch work for a 25-year-old star, a 26-year-old ruckman and a player stuck behind an established teammate at a contender? Or does every target create a different test of what the rebuild can credibly offer?
And what should supporters actually learn if one player says yes and another says no? Is a single signature proof Richmond is a destination again? Is one rejection proof the opposite? At what point would a pattern become meaningful?
The deeper issue is not whether Richmond has a famous jumper, a huge supporter base or money to spend. It is whether the footballer being pursued can see a believable place for his own career inside what Richmond is building.
That is the puzzle the member investigation follows: what makes a rebuilding Richmond genuinely attractive to the right established players, which evidence matters, and what would the recruiting market tell us about the credibility of the rebuild itself?
Read the full RTSSG investigation: “Who Would Want to Come to Richmond?” When Did Rebuilding Become a Question of Richmond’s Attractiveness?
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