Richmond pre-season, Kane Lambert, Richmond premiership, AFL 2018January 9, 2018 12:25pm
by Michael Thompson
Source: FOX THEY may have achieved the pinnacle in 2017.
But Richmond midfielder/forward Kane Lambert believes the Tigers still have their best footy ahead of them, with the team preparing to go back-to-back in 2018.
Speaking on SEN Breakfast this morning, Lambert spoke of the mindset of the group throughout last season with the team still confident they haven’t showed their best yet.
“We were process driven last year, that is the mind frame we come with this year,” Lambert said.
“We played our best footy in the back end of last year, we also felt we could play better. Last year was such an amazing year, our best footy’s ahead of us”.
Richmond revolutionised the game in 2017, opting to blood a forward line that only featured one key target in Jack Riewoldt.
While Lambert is unsure whether clubs will follow suit this season, he’s confident the Tigers — under the leadership of captain Trent Cotchin and vice-captains Alex Rance and Riewoldt — he believes Richmond has room for plenty of growth.
“Dimma says the game doesn’t remember what we did last week, we do have strong leaders with Trent, Alex and Jack leading the group. We are more excited about the growth of the group,” said the midfielder.
“They’ll be elements of opposition clubs that take some of the way we play; we did that with how the Bulldogs played. It’ll be interesting to see if clubs structure their forward line differently.”
Lambert wants to add finishing off in the forward line, which is an area he wants to improve on from last season, and hopes to add that into the way he plays his footy.
“One of my goals is to become a bit more damaging in the front half, I didn’t hurt the opposition as much as I thought I would like. Hope I can add that into my game in 2018.”
The premiership star finished third at the club’s best and fairest last year, and didn’t care where he’d finished as long as he got to play in a Premiership.
“At the end of the day I wouldn’t have minded to finish 33rd, and still play in a Premiership.”
“It is nice to get that individual recognition, but the premiership medal and the year we had was more important to us.”
The 26-year-old is excited to see the introduction of AFLX into the game, with Lambert excited to see how it’s played.
“It is going to be exciting to play, and exciting to watch. So I’m looking forward to seeing how that unfolds.”
AFLX kicks off on Thursday, 15 February in Adelaide.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/richmond-premiership-midfielder-kane-lambert-says-tigers-best-footy-is-still-ahead-of-them/news-story/d79ed39f64442e70e724a6dca2b144df