Richmond’s young list can catapult Tigers to a finals win, says defender David AstburySam Landsberger
Herald-Sun
December 19, 2014 1:52PMRICHMOND defender David Astbury says the Tigers already have the talent to win the club’s first final since 2001 after an inactive trade and free agency period.
The injury-cursed tall said on Friday the middle chunk of Richmond’s list was ready to catapult the Tigers past the first week of September as their pre-Christmas training block came to a close.
Richmond was one of only three clubs — along with Fremantle and West Coast — to not strike a deal in October, but the Tigers did put feelers out for Jason Winderlich, David Armitage and Jack Trengove before grabbing tagger Taylor Hunt from Geelong’s scrapheap.
And Astbury — who missed the final 15 games this year with a dislocated left kneecap — says he has total confidence in his body despite suffering the same injury to his right knee three years ago.
The 23-year-old, who has also battled foot and hamstring blows in his 37-game career, was in career-best form when the injury struck, sitting second in the Tigers’ best-and-fairest count.
“To miss out on playing in another final was really disappointing for me, but we’re looking at embarking on another finals series … so hopefully I get another opportunity,” Astbury said.
“I feel every bit as good as I did pre-surgery. My rehab progression was absolutely flawless and that set me up to have a big pre-season, and so far that’s been very good also.”
Astbury played the final VFL game of 2014 as a confidence-booster and anointed players entering their fourth to seventh seasons as the group capable of breaking Richmond’s finals duck.
Astbury is one of 12 Tigers drafted in that window who are still on the list, while coach Damien Hardwick has also added Hunt and Anthony Miles (GWS).
“We’re looking to start the season the way we sort of finished it (with) those last nine weeks of the home-and-away season and really build on that momentum,” Astbury said.
“We really don’t want to have to win nine straight to get a finals berth, we’re really looking to make sure we start the season towards the upper end of the ladder and just build from there.
“We’re sort of relying on natural progression and we had a clear strategy to go to the draft and bring some youth through.
“We’ve got a really solid base of players between the four and seven years (in the system) who definitely have a lot more improvement.
“We started to see that towards the back end of the year with guys like Ben Griffiths, Jake Batchelor, Dylan Grimes — these sort of guys are the guys that are going to take the next step and hopefully drive us into September.”
No.12 draft pick Corey Ellis had surgery on his foot on Friday but is expected to return to full training early in 2015, while Chris Newman (groin), Sam Lloyd (ankle) and Matt Thomas (knee) are also in rehab.
Astbury said the Tigers had simplified their pre-season program and he had already noticed improvement.
4-7 YEAR TIGERS2008 DRAFTTyrone Vickery (pick 8 )
2009 DRAFTDustin Martin (pick 3)
Ben Griffiths (pick 19)
David Astbury (pick 35)
Matt Dea (pick 44)
2010 DRAFTReece Conca (pick 6)
Jake Batchelor (pick 30)
Dylan Grimes (pre-season draft)
2011 DRAFTBrandon Ellis (pick 15)
Todd Elton (pick 26)
Matt Arnot (pick 55)
Bachar Houli (pre-season draft)
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmonds-young-list-can-catapult-tigers-to-a-finals-win-says-defender-david-astbury/story-fndv8t7m-1227161826308
