Taj Hotton Biography

Richmond coach Adem Yze has high hopes for "special talent" Taj Hotton as the first-round draft pick prepares to make his AFL debut.

"He can go deep, he can play a high-forward role," Yze said.

"Then he has pinch hit in the midfield in the VFL the last couple of weeks, so we might see him around the ball late in the game as well.

"He's a special talent, when you've got the ability to jump and mark like he does and then at ground level do things, it's really hard to coach."

Taj Hotton aims to return mid-season after rupturing his right anterior cruciate ligament in May. The 18-year-old underwent minor follow-up surgery in October and is set to start running again in the pre-Christmas training block.

"Taj is super keen, but we will take the full 12 months to rehab him," Richmond high performance boss Ben Serpell said.

"We are still getting our heads around where he's at. He met with his surgeon midweek and we'll get the details from him and start to build a plan for that and hopefully have him out there relatively soon.

"We'll probably take the full 12 months and look after the kid. He's got a long career ahead of him."

Richmond select Taj Hotton with pick No.12 in the 2024 National Draft.