Shocking;  Five-Week Ban Leaves Richmond Exposed and Searching for Answers As There Forward Line Faces Major Crisis

 

Tom Lynch has been hit with the heaviest sanction of the 2025 AFL season so far – and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for Richmond.

 

The star forward will miss five crucial games after the AFL tribunal handed down its verdict on Tuesday night, suspending Lynch for a high strike on Adelaide’s Jordon Butts.

 

It’s a blow that leaves a youthful Tigers side reeling, their most experienced forward set to watch from the sidelines as his teammates fight to keep their season alive.

 

“You can’t argue with that,” four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis said on AFL 360. “The potential to cause serious injury was well and truly in play.”

 

Co-host Gerard Whateley agreed, calling the punishment both fair and necessary. “I think it’s the right outcome for an ugly incident which has no place in the modern game,” he said.

 

For Lynch, it’s not just a ban – it’s a wake-up call. As Herald Sun reporter Lauren Wood put it on Midweek Tackle: “He’s paying the ultimate price for something he has to get out of his game.”

 

The tribunal’s decision came amid growing calls for consistency in AFL suspensions. Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph noted that while Conor Nash’s hit on Gryan Miers earlier in the season was “careless and in-play,” Lynch’s act demanded a harsher response.

“This had to be five weeks,” Ralph said. “When the AFL world is crying out for consistency, the league couldn’t afford to get this one wrong.”

 

For Richmond, however, the cost is immense. Lynch will miss clashes against Geelong, Essendon, West Coast, Collingwood and Gold Coast – a brutal run that could define the Tigers’ campaign.

 

With Noah Balta also sidelined due to his court-imposed curfew, the Tigers’ forward line looks dangerously thin.

 

“Noah Balta, off-field across summer, just starting that seven-year deal, badly let the club down,” Ralph observed. “This is on a lesser end of the scale, but another player finishing off a seven-year deal is going to leave them badly exposed.”

 

Lynch’s absence also raises questions about his future. The dual premiership star and three-time Jack Dyer Medal winner is out of contract beyond 2025. Though preliminary talks have begun for a one-year extension, his long-term place in a rebuilding side remains uncertain.

 

As Richmond turns to its younger brigade for answers, the Tigers will be tested like never before. For Lynch, the suspension is more than a headline – it’s a reminder that, in today’s game, split-second decisions can leave ripples long after the siren.