The selfless Richmond Tiger carrying the game on one hip

Rarely does someone come away from a Richmond game marvelling at the selfless running of Kane Lambert. But they probably should.

Overlooked in drafts for years, Lambert’s story rising from the rookie list to being a three-time premiership player and prominent finisher in Tigers best and fairests has been well told.

The accepted narrative is Lambert has long covered for superstar Dustin Martin, allowing Martin to play as centre bounce midfielder who then drifts forward, with Lambert’s running ability and discipline meaning he has kept a close eye on Martin’s direct opponent. Lambert has allowed Dusty to be Dusty.

Martin wasn’t there on Thursday night as the Tigers overcame Carlton at the MCG. The Brownlow Medallist missed through illness of the non-Covid variety.

But that didn’t mean that Lambert, back from a career-threatening hip injury, didn’t provide a significant boost. In Martin’s absence it was Dion Prestia, who was probably the chief beneficiary of Lambert’s outstanding accountability and two-way running. Lambert finished with 22 disposals while Prestia was among the best afield with 33 disposals and 19 contested possessions.

But there is little doubt Prestia’s task was made easier by Lambert’s presence. Any good midfield needs balance. It’s like eating healthily, you need the right mix of protein, carbohydrates, fats and fibre. If Prestia is known as the Human Meatball, Lambert is low GI spaghetti, not necessarily the tastiest part of the meal but important and keeps you going for longer.

Dual-premiership midfielder Jack Graham mentioned Lambert’s importance with little prompting when asked about how the Tigers’ season – which had been stuttering at 2-4 in April – had turned around to the point that they went back inside the top eight following their 15-point win over the Blues.

“Lambo coming in, he helps so much. Off-the-ball it’s awesome,” Graham says.

“You’ve got to watch off the ball really. We don’t care if he doesn’t get the ball, it’s all the patterns, the holding corridor, putting his teammates in better positions and setting up teammates more. So credit to him.

“He’s definitely one of our best runners. What he’s done, even though he’s struggling a bit with his hip, you know he’s always going to give 110 per cent and we just love having him out there.”

“Struggling” is the elephant in the room. Thursday night was just Lambert’s sixth AFL match of the season. In one of those he was a non-playing substitute.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick addressed the issue earlier in the season, flagging the prospect of a hip replacement down the track for Lambert.

“Any time a great player is out you worry. We got four games out of him in a row, and it’s no coincidence we win all of those games,” Hardwick said.

“To see what he puts his body through and to see him walk out of those change rooms at the end, he gives everything. To see him come to me at half-time [of the round 10 win over Essendon], he said “I think I’m done”, shows how hard he works to get up.

“Whatever games we get out of Kane are going to be a real bonus from here on in.

“Where it leaves him long term we are not too sure, but there are very few players who would be putting their bodies through what he does every week. I’ll be pushing our very best players to get back and he’s one of those. It’s just what he can put up with.”

Speaking on Thursday night, Graham outlined that Lambert was on a heavily modified program.

“He does limited training. He’s got to do what he’s got to do, but we know when it comes to game day we can count on him.’

Just how limited is limited?

“He picks and chooses I reckon,” Graham says, half in jest.

“But he’s allowed to!”

In any case, the Tigers are starting to seriously hum. Ahead of the season they were variously tipped as genuine premiership contenders or a bottom six side on the downward slide following their dynasty. The opening couple of months of the season made it even harder to know when the real Richmond would stand up.

But at 8-5, having won six out of seven matches – the sole loss coming by a goal to Sydney in a controversial after-the-siren finish – things are looking promising at Punt Road.

“Scrappy win. The last couple of Thursday nights have been pretty wet, sloppy games. But a couple of wins you walk away with, pretty happy,” Graham says.

“We don’t mind the [wet weather]. It’s kind of that surge football, get the ball forward and let our smalls run onto it. It’s just great to get the win in these type of conditions.

“We’re playing some good football. We were disappointing last time we played Carlton [in] round one, that last quarter let us down. We’re playing a bit of a different brand of football, a bit of speed on the ball. It was a little bit mentioned. But we know our best footy can stack up. We knew they were going to come out. They’re a good side, quality side, but so are we.

“We know they are going to keep on coming. We said it at all the breaks really, stick to our process, we know our process can break down other sides.”

Graham added that the Tigers had returned to some of their premiership trademarks in turning their form around.

“Things have changed. Nothing dramatically, but it’s more about blokes going back to playing the role, executing it, just trying to get a bit more speed on the ball, surge football how we used to play … so it’s been good, fun.”