Richmond star Tom Lynch has gone viral on social media after some brutal sledging towards Essendon’s Archie Roberts.
The Tigers claimed a second win of the season on Friday night as they saw off the Bombers 74-56 at the MCG.
And in the latter stages of the game, with just five minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Lynch added insult to injury.
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During a scuffle. Lynch manhandled Roberts and turned him around.
He then pointed at the No21 on the back of the Essendon player’s shirt, appearing to infer he did not know who Roberts was.
The savage act was caught on the live broadcast — with fans quick to react to the moment online.
One said: “That is wild work from Tom Lynch.”
While another added: “Tom Lynch making Archie Roberts turn around and show his number is genuine cinema.”
A third replied: “That’s why he’s the GOAT.”
And a fourth reacted: “Top tier s***housery.”
Richmond have somewhat recovered from seven defeats in a row at the start of the 2026 season, winning two of their last four to move off the bottom of the AFL ladder.
Meanwhile, Essendon remain rock bottom after just one win from their 11 matches.
They are also on a run of six successive losses — with Friday evening the first of those in which they have conceded fewer than 100 points.
After the game, Essendon coach Brad Scott said: “It’s probably hard to separate the performance from the circumstances.
“But in terms of the game, we were on the hop the whole time, given that right from the start, we had to shuffle the deck chairs a fair bit.”
He went on to add: “I mean, it’s obviously extremely disappointing not to get it done, but there are always things that you think, okay, there’s positives, but it’s hard to talk about positives at the moment for us.
“We’re in a situation that we don’t want to be in, and we’ve got to keep fighting.
“I thought, overall, and I know at the end of the day, no one cares, but given the circumstances, the players fought to the end and gave themselves a chance to win and fell just short.”
Originally published as Brutal AFL sledging labelled ‘genuine cinema’ in Richmond win over Essendon