Why 'angry' Richmond star apologised to teammates

An “angry” Jacob Hopper has revealed the extent of his hamstring injury sustained suffered in Richmond’s 43-point loss to Melbourne on Anzac eve, while also noting he has apologised for his bench outburst.

It was Hopper’s first game back since round one, after overcoming a knee injury.

Hopper pulled up sore chasing Demon Clayton Oliver’s mark at the MCG, but decided to play on for a few minutes before being dragged and subbed off in the third term.

When we was taken to the bench by club medicos, Hopper was spotted kicking a drink bottle in frustration.

The act drew attention to the Tigers’ bench, after Hopper impressively collected a game-high 23 disposals.

Richmond star Jacob Hopper was fuming after leaving the field injured.

Now, Hopper has apologised for his actions, explaining that he felt so frustrated in the moment after the injury that he wasn’t thinking straight.

“Obviously angry that it happened. To cop a bit of another injury was just frustrating,” Hopper said at Punt Road on Thursday.

“Hopefully (I) don’t kick too many more bottles, because I … regretted it as soon as I did, because someone could have copped a bottle to the head.”

The midfielder said he had spent much of his Thursday apologising for his action on the bench.

“I’m trying to apologise to everyone on the bench, but obviously pretty frustrating at the time,” he said.

Hopper admitted that he was keen to play on as he felt Richmond was “well and truly in the game” during that third term, but made the call to sit the rest of the game out to avoid further damage.

“I think a bit of in denial at that stage (when I played on) … as we were well and truly in the game as well. Then I felt like it probably wasn’t the smartest decision (to play on),” he said.

After the match in coach Adem Yze’s post match press conference, he offered a strange reason as to why Hopper may have gone down injured.

“I think it’s one of the first games that he’s played with tape on his knee, so we originally thought it was something to do with the tape and whether the tape was too tight and things like that,” Yze said post-game.

“And he hasn’t hurt his hammy before, so he tried to stay out there and run it out.

“I think the fact that he had a taped knee made it a little bit uncomfortable.”

Hopper has played just 19 games since he was recruited to the Tigers from GWS at the start of 2023.

Richmond now look ahead to their must-win clash against Fremantle next Sunday.