Richmond ruck suffers potentially cruel injury blow as key Don returns in VFL

Round 8 of the 2024 VFL season is complete after two games took place on Sunday.

The day’s first game was held at Trevor Barker Oval where Sandringham thrashed Richmond 134-24.

Richmond’s stocks have taken a huge hit and as a result, the VFL team was largely uncompetitive due to a lack of AFL talent available.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, their injury news got even worse in this game with veteran ruckman Sam Naismith going down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

The former Swan has already undergone three knee reconstructions across his career and Richmond fear he’s done an ACL injury again as he suffered the blow while simply changing direction.

For the Zebras, their best performers included Max Heath (two goals, 23 disposals, seven marks), Jack Hayes (two goals, 21 disposals), Brad Crouch (35 disposals) and Old Hotton (one goal, 21 disposals).

For the Tigers, Jacob Koschitzke kicked two goals, while the only other AFL-listed players to appear were Kaleb Smith (22 disposals), Samson Ryan (eight disposals) and Naismith.

The day’s other game took place at Windy Hill with Essendon beating North Melbourne 99-48.

Much of the spotlight surrounded Jordan Ridley on his return from a quad injury.

The star defender got through a half of footy, picking up 19 disposals, before doing conditioning work during the second half.

Other key performers for the Dons were Nick Bryan (two goals, 25 disposals, 29 hitouts), Zach Reid (20 disposals, 10 marks) and Nate Caddy (two goals, 14 disposals).

For North Melbourne, Will Phillips (24 disposals) racked up a lot of footy while Dylan Stephens (18 disposals) tried hard to get back into the senior selection frame.

Other Round 8 winners were Frankston, Werribee, Footscray, Brisbane, Southport, Geelong and Williamstown.