![\"Jacob](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/59a04911ada1459de8891bbeec5014cb5537ec46.jpg\")
Camera IconJacob Blight of the Tigers celebrates a goal. Credit: James Elsby\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\nFurious Richmond fans have turned on the club after their \u201cmind boggling\u201d call to axe West Australian product Jacob Blight.<\/p>\n
The mature-aged recruit was selected with pick No.2 in the 2024 mid-season rookie draft and went on to play 10 games, showing promise as he was tried as both a forward and defender.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old played in seven games this year, including their shock round one win over Carlton, but fell out of favour towards the end of the season, despite picking up 17 touches in his final game against Geelong.<\/p>\n
Blight was one game away from hitting a one-year trigger in his contract, but was never named in the squad again.<\/p>\n
Coach Adem Yze bizarrely claimed at the time he was not aware of the trigger.<\/p>\n
One hour after confirming his delisting on social media \u2014 alongside fellow Tiger Jacob Koschitzke \u2014 all but six of 151 comments on an Instagram post were blasting the club over the decision to cut Blight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell has Jacob Blight done other then out all effort in to stay in the team and confirm a spot in the 22,\u201d one user wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did they bother bringing Blight over from WA? A waste of his time – he was not given a chance at all!,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlight is going to be a great player, I\u2019ve just lost a bit of faith in the Tigers list management team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlight revenge game will feed generations,\u201d another wrote. \u201cDon\u2019t have to be dead to be stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club did not give reasoning for his cut, only wishing him well in a brief statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank both players for their hard work and application during their time at the club,\u201d football talent manager Blair Hartley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacob (Blight) moved across the country to play with the club mid-way through last year, and we thank him for his commitment during his 18 months with us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wish them both well for their future pursuits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconJacob Blight of the Tigers celebrates a goal. Credit: James Elsby\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Tigers are eager to clear up list spots as they enter the draft with another strong hand, but many questioned letting go of Blight, with fans accusing the club of mothballing him.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally disappointed with the decision to not offer Blight a contract extension, thought he played pretty well in my opinion but didn\u2019t get chance,\u201d Craig Young wrote in response to the announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould have kept Blight and actually given him a go. Hope he finds a bright future. Sad loss,\u201d wrote Sharon Gallaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a blight on the club letting Blight go\u2026. He\u2019s going ok!,\u201d Stephen Ash said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlight looks amazing, what are we doing?\u201d another said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLetting Blight go is actually really strange. I thought he played really well at senior level and I\u2019m surprised he wasn\u2019t played more,\u201d X user Mick G posted.<\/p>\n
Many predicted Blight would find a new home back in WA particularly with West Coast looking to bolster their defensive stocks following the loss of Tom Barrass and Jeremy McGovern in the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlight looked fantastic, was there something he did to get on the club\u2019s bad side? Because I can\u2019t work that out. Surely he gets to another club and goes well,\u201d Chris Lane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlight is going to get picked up by West Coast and we are going to look stupid,\u201d Nick Ash concurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see Blight with a WCE jumper on next year. He would be a good addition to Mini\u2019s team. Sad to see him go but I hope he gets a run over there,\u201d Troy Michie wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoping West Coast pick up blight. Waste of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Furious Richmond fans have turned on the club after their \u201cmind boggling\u201d call to axe West Australian product…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,43,44,672,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-116280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-richmond-tigers","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}