Tyrone Vickery set to stay with Richmond, rejecting lucrative deals with rival clubsHerald-Sun
August 27, 2015TYRONE Vickery will reject rivals offers to stay with Richmond next year as the key forward plays the most commanding football of his career.
Clubs including the Brisbane Lions have continued to come hard at Vickery despite the Tigers rejecting offers of first-round picks for him during last year’s trade period.
He will play his 100th game with the Tigers this week against Essendon after kicking 10 goals straight in the past fortnight.
Richmond has always believed in the player selected at pick eight in the 2008 national draft but he has frustrated fans and coaches alike.
Tigers legend Matthew Richardson said on Sunday there was speculation the Magpies had thrown a package at him to lure him away.
But it is understood they have no interest in trying to snare Vickery this year, with other clubs looking for a key forward repeatedly asking about his services.
He comes out of contract at the end of next year and has consistently signed deals in the previous summer before his contract expires each October.
The Tigers would say only that they had always believed in his progression and that he was under contract.
He has kicked 24.7 in his 12 games this year, kicking four goals against Gold Coast and six against Collingwood in the past two rounds.
He continues to maximise his chances at goal, ranked by Champion Data as the third-most accurate shot at goal behind Tory Dickson and Luke Breust.
Vickery, a free agent next year, had played just three games until Round 10 but injury to Ben Griffiths opened the way for him to play regular senior football.
Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch conceded the club was unlikely to be able to lure an established key position target.
“It seems to be the case,” he said.
“We’ve got some good young keys. We have to develop our own.
“We know with young keys it doesn’t happen overnight. We have some issues there we know can’t be fixed overnight, but we’re hell-bent on making it better and making it better as quick as we can.”
Coach Damien Hardwick put it on Vickery to lift his standards in the pre-season, stating: ““We demand that he plays better, and we also know that for us to go up the ladder he is a very important part of that.”
“I’ve just got to make sure those three key forwards are playing to their absolute capacity and, at the moment, I think Ty would be the first to admit that he can play better.”
Hardwick continues to push him hard, saying after last weekend’s career-best game that Vickery needed to continue standing up.
“His next game is his most important game. He can sit there and enjoy it for what it is but the fact of the matter is he has to perform on a weekly basis,’’ Hardwick said.
“We expect him to, he’s been doing a hell of a lot of work on his contested marking and goal kicking but that game is now in the bank, we are moving on pretty quickly to Essendon and that’s where we expect his next good performance to come from.”
Richmond have put in a submission to the AFL explaining the circumstances of Dustin Martin’s two-fingered salute to Collingwood fans.
The club believes he was provoked by those fans but has been told it will get a response about a potential fine later in the week.
AFL’s sharpest shooters1. Tory Dickson (WB) 58 shots, 42.12, accuracy 72.4 per cent.
2. Luke Breust (Haw) 63 shots, 45.16, accuracy 71.4 per cent
3. Tyrone Vickery (Rich) 34 shots, 24.7, accuracy 70.6 per cent4. Kurt Tippett (Syd) 50 shots, 34.14, accuracy 68 per cent
5. Cam McCarthy (GWS) 53 shots, 35.12, accuracy 66 per cent.
Source: Champion Data
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