“Hard to swallow”: When Dimma’s exit caught Taranto by surprise

Tim Taranto admits it was “hard to swallow” when Damien Hardwick up and left Richmond.

Taranto was recruited to the club on a seven-year deal in the 2022 trade period - along with fellow Giant-at-the-time Jacob Hopper - as Hardwick attempted to rebuild on the run after his three-premiership era a few years prior.

Just 10 games later, in Taranto’s first season in yellow and black, Hardwick quit the club and months later took up residence at the Gold Coast Suns.

Now in his fourth season at Tigerland, and third under Adem Yze, Taranto has had time to reflect on that unfortunate situation which initially blindsided him but now is simply part of his story.

“It was hard to swallow, I wasn’t expecting it,” Taranto admitted on SEN’s Fireball.

“I guess you’ve just got to roll with the punches and go with what you’ve got. I came for the Richmond footy club, not for just one person, so I still got that and I’m still loving that part of the club.

“The culture hasn’t changed despite some people moving on. I’ve got the main stuff. It didn’t probably turn out early days how I would have liked.

“But the flip side of that is now.

“We’ve kind of gone through the worst of it hopefully in terms of win-loss. The next few years will be a bit nicer and hopefully I can be a part of that, and be a leader amongst these young, talented kids.”

Since joining the Tigers, Taranto has won two Jack Dyer Medals and is considered the club’s best midfielder as a new era dawns.

The newly-minted vice-captain is loving what he is seeing from the plethora of young guns strutting their stuff at Punt Road which makes the Dimma blow much easier to handle.

In particular, No.1 draft pick Sam Lalor stands out to Taranto with his powerful attributes and he can only see him getting better and better as he assimilates in the AFL system.

“It’s pretty hard, they’ve all got their own traits that are pretty awesome. It’s hard to go past Lalor though," he said of his favourite Tiger cub.

“I don’t see any kid like him to be honest. He’s pretty special and I reckon he’s only at 50 per cent of what he’s going to be.

“He’s barely done any footy in his juniors. He’s been a cricketer, just eating chocolate and hitting sixes. Now he’s getting into his first few pre-seasons.

“You go another three or four years in the system, he’s going to be scary.”

Taranto was the subject of stinging criticism from SEN’s Kane Cornes just a few seasons ago.

Cornes wondered if Taranto was even in the top 150 players in the AFL during the 2023 campaign.

Coming from the Giants where scrutiny wasn’t as brutal as in Melbourne, Taranto admits he was initially taken aback by the negativity.

But it’s water off a duck’s back these days.

“Early days it probably did affect me a little bit,” he said further.

“Coming down from Sydney I wasn’t used to that type of scrutiny, so in the early days it did get to me a little bit.

“It’s all part of it now. I guess I’ve got thicker skin and it’s more of a laugh now I reckon when I see it. So bring it on Kane, if you’ve got any more.”

Cornes admitted that his criticism of Taranto was “15 to 20 percent” too harsh and “unfair in the end”.

This Saturday, Taranto and his Tigers teammates meet his fleeting former mentor Hardwick and the Suns at the MCG.