Sam Lalor will wear number four for Richmond in 2026, inheriting the famous club number for his second season in yellow and black.
Lalor, 19, wore the number throughout his junior football, including for GWV Rebels in the Coates Talent League and with Bacchus Marsh.
He inherits the famous number after a debut season that brought with it the Bill Cosgrove-Harry Jenkins Medal as Richmond’s best first-year player despite missing 12 games.
Lalor averaged 13 disposals and 1.1 goals from his 10 completed matches at AFL level last season.
He was imposing with 18 disposals and two important goals on debut in front of 80,000 fans against Carlton, and with his 24 touches and two majors against eventual premiers Brisbane, also at the MCG.
Dustin Martin, most recently, wore the guernsey number at Richmond, a three-time premiership player, triple Norm Smith Medallist, and Brownlow Medallist.
Already an iconic number at the club after the legendary career of Richmond ‘immortal’, dual premiership captain and four-time premiership player, Royce Hart, the number has continued to grow in prominence for the Tiger Army.
Triple Jack Dyer Medallist Geoff Raines donned the number from 1978-82, and Craig Lambert also won a Jack Dyer Medal with the number in 1991.
Martin then gave its notability a new meaning, given his significance to the Club’s 37-year drought-breaking premiership and subsequent golden era.
Lalor, who will now take it into the next generation of prominence with the Tiger Army, said he admired Martin and that it was a massive honour to take on the number.
He said before being drafted that he would love to wear the number four.
“There is some great (number four) history within the club,” he said. “I wore it as a kid growing up and cannot wait to wear it for the first time.
“I look up to him (Martin) a lot, obviously try to base my game off him a fair bit, and he had such an impact at Richmond.
“Hopefully, I can try and play a bit like him, and yeah, he is one of the players I looked at growing up. So, it is a massive honour to wear his number.”
