Nathan Foley to make his long-awaited return.

Nathan Foley should play his first game of the 2010 season on Sunday night against the Dockers in Perth.

We have not seen Foley since he suffered a severe ankle injury in Round 14 of the 2009 season. Foley was flying at the time averaging a career-high 25.8 disposals per game and we later found out was leading Richmond's best and fairest count at the time.

Richmond has severely lacked that kind of production from the midfield since Foley went down.

Foley who is only 24 will now team up with the other young members of Richmond's midfield Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio and of course new rookie Dustin Martin.

The Tigers have also named Newman, McGuane, Cousins, Polo and Nahas for this weekend's game remembering this is an extended bench. Out goes Daniel Jackson and Tom Hislop both injured and Post has been left out.

In the AFL Youth with Experience is everything!

Richmond is going into this weekend game against Melbourne with the youngest team of the round at an average age of 22.15 years old and an average game experience of 44 both the lowest in the AFL by a long way.

Let’s take a look at youngest teams for this weekend first:

Richmond 22.15
Carlton 23.30
Essendon 23.58
Melbourne 23.84
North Melbourne 23.88
Hawthorn 23.89

Now we will take a look at game experience for this weekend’s teams:

Richmond 44
Carlton 66
Essendon 67
North Melbourne 68
West Coast 69
Melbourne 71

No surprises here I have names some of the worst teams in the AFL, let’s take a look at Geelong, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs and Collingwood.

Geelong - Age 26.75 & Games 127
St Kilda - Age 26.34 & Games 114
Western Bulldogs - Age 26.30 & Games 118
Collingwood - Age 25.56 & Games 121

Notice any similarities? The perfect age and experience level for an AFL football team appears to be around the 25 to 26 age bracket and with around 110 to 130 games of experience.

Even with the players Richmond is missing this weekend which has skewed the numbers the Tigers are at least 3 years away from hitting the magical mark.

On an interesting side note, Fremantle’s average age is 24.65 and the average games is 84, this and next year I think Freo are for real.

Richmond Forced to make SIX changes for the Melbourne game on Sunday

Now that Richmond has suspended Ben Cousins, Luke McGuane and Dean Polo for one week and Daniel Connors for eight matches, lost captain Chris Newman through injury as well as dropping Relton Roberts (again) there will be a lot of new faces on the park this week.

Youngsters David Astbury, Matt Dea and Troy Taylor will make their debuts, while Mitch Farmer, Robin Nahas, Jake King, Tom Hislop, Andrew Collins and Graham Polak have also been included in the extended squad.


Also Jack Riewoldt will play his 50th match for the Tigers, how time flys when your having fun.
 
My Tip.... Melbourne by 35