AFL Comparison #14: Richmond Tigers

The Richmond Tigers, despite making the playoffs in 2013 for the first time in twelve years and having a budding roster of talent that boded well for the coming '14 season, went 3-10 over the first thirteen games of the twenty-two game season, dropping all the way to the very bottom of the ladder (tied with St. Kilda) in July. Counted for dead, the Tiger faithful were counting the dead men walking that they were going to go after when the season ended.

However, they got a couple of key players healthy, played a few easier teams to start the stretch, and somehow managed to win the last nine games of their season, including a do-or-die victory against Sydney AT Sydney that absolutely nobody gave them any chance to win on the last Saturday of the season. Then they got into the playoffs and won a game against Essendon before the clock struck midnight, the chariot turned into a pumpkin, and the team fell on their tailbones against a Port Adelaide team that scored fifty points on them in the first quarter alone en route to an eleven-goal rout that left the Tigers with more questions than they'd started the season with.

In 2015, they kept the momentum moving, and made a 15-7 season carry into a fifth place finish...only to get routed by the eighth place Kangaroos. But it led them to a favored place for this year, 2016, right? They went 7-15, and fell all the way to fourteenth. Suddenly, a team that started the year saying they had the players to win was complaining that the talent wasn't sufficient...

So, if they've got that much talent, why can't they win?

Their American counterpart: the San Diego Chargers

The Chargers of the NFL started life in LA, didn't like it, moved south to San Diego, and have teased their fans ever since - amazingly, five years ago, they found a way to be the #1 rated offense, the #1 rated defense, and STILL not make the playoffs! (Special teams and penalties play a large part in this story.) Like the Tigers, they have no history of titles, but lost and LOTS of potential! Like the Tigers, they set records, but don't win the games that should go with them. Like the Tigers, the Chargers have been known to fold in the most critical situations. Don't count on an NFL title, San Diego... Don't count on an AFL title either, Richmond supporters.