It wasn’t the Tigers’ night on Friday against Collingwood, but Damien Hardwick nailed his substitution call.
The Magpies were all over Richmond for most of the clash, particularly in the first half when heading into half-time leading scoring shots 13 to four. It amounted to only a 19-point lead off the back of some inaccurate kicking, but the Tigers were undoubtedly in trouble.
Enter Noah Cumberland.
The 22-year-old hadn’t played AFL this year after eight exciting games in 2022, but came on as Richmond’s sub after half-time and changed the game.
Gerard Whateley believes Cumberland’s use is the perfect prototype for the sub going forward.
“This is game 19 (of the 2023 season) and this is the first time I feel the sub has made a difference,” Whateley began on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“It was a tactical decision, they were clearly thinking about it in the last minutes of the second half, waited until half-time, and Noah Cumberland changed the tempo of the game in the first ten minutes of the third quarter.”
The Tigers gave Collingwood a fright when kicking the first three goals of the third quarter to narrow the margin to less than a kick before Craig McRae’s side proved too strong to record a 14-point win.
Cumberland came on for tall forward Samson Ryan in the slippery conditions and recorded seven possessions (five contested) and three inside 50s.
Hardwick has been reluctant to play Cumberland in the same team as Dustin Martin and Shai Bolton given their similar roles, but David King believes the “wildcard” simply has to play going forward.
“He is a player. He had a terrific back half of last season. He’s a bit of a wildcard, he finds the ball in really aggressive positions and he plays a style that if he has six or seven touches, they’re going on the scoreboard,” the dual-premiership Kangaroo said.
“I love those sort of players. To me, he’s a must play for Richmond. Their forward line can look a bit pedestrian at times… it’s come out a bit easy the last couple of weeks, so they need those spark players.
“I know we look at the magnets of Dusty, (Tom) Lynch, (Jack) Riewoldt and Bolton and we fall in love with them. But more often than not, you see Maurice Rioli putting pressure on and not a lot of others.
“I think they need a bit more youth in that forward half.”
Cumberland was taken with a second round pick in 2019 and averaged over two goals a game last year.