Matt Rendell feels some arrogance has crept into the Richmond side of late.
The Tigers put up one of their most disappointing performances in some time against St Kilda last Friday night, kicking just two goals to go down by 40 points.
Ahead of Thursday night’s Round 16 meeting with the Gold Coast Suns, Rendell analysed Damien Hardwick’s reigning premiership outfit, believing some of the aura surrounding their dynasty has dissipated.
“Richmond, well you know I’ve been on them from day dot, I really like how they play,” he said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“That’s the worst game I’ve seen them play for a long, long time.
“I can’t believe how many kicks and handballs they missed, missed targets. Their swarming offence with numbers tracking the ball, gone.
“I don’t know if they’ve got lazy.
“They look a touch arrogant to me, Richmond at the moment.
“Getting challenged by clubs and getting narky with it. Doing little sly things. I know they’ve been doing that for a while, but it seems to be getting worse.”
Rendell highlighted the debut handed to young tall Samson Ryan against the Saints as an example of that apparent arrogance.
“I just thought playing Samson Ryan, first gamer with hardly any experience, against (Paddy) Ryder and (Rowan) Marshall, I thought that’s arrogant,” he added.
“You had (Mabior) Chol and (Callum) Coleman-Jones. I don’t know what they were thinking, maybe they could expose them in the forward line with three talls. It didn’t work.
“They didn’t get it down there because Ryder and Marshall dominated.”
A “heavy reliance” on Dustin Martin, the absence of key pillars Tom Lynch and David Astbury, and the form of a handful of players including Liam Baker, Jayden Short, Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna and Shai Bolton, in Rendell’s opinion, has led to a downturn in results for the Tigers.
“Heavy reliance on Dusty to do stuff,” he said further.
“(Trent) Cotchin’s tried his bum off, but they used to have a lot of role players who used to do their job week in, week out. Well, they’ve disappeared.
“Baker was going fantastic, he’s dropped off, as has Short. Bolton since he broke his wrist hasn’t been the same player.
“The other thing is, Lynch is crucial and he’s been missing all that time. Astbury as well, but everyone gets a few injuries.
“They used to have a great little mosquito fleet around them.
“Rioli’s been off the boil since that (nightclub) incident. He hasn’t been super anyway through the year. Castagna has been off the boil, so they’ve lost those smalls who have been really good.”
The Tigers currently sit eighth on the ladder with a record of 7-7 as they attempt to bounce back to winning ways against the Suns at Marvel Stadium.