Grimes on his return post-hammy and preparation for 2023:Grimes said he was cleared of his own injury about a week after Richmond’s narrow elimination final defeat and was buoyant about his fitness after adopting a different pre-season approach.
“It was my third bout of hammy surgery now, so we’ve got a bit of an idea of what to do,” he said.
“But, having said that, we’ve got a new fitness coach and new weights coach as well, so we’re throwing pretty much the kitchen sink at it, really.
“Most of the stuff that’s been different has been in the gym ... [and] I probably didn’t de-load as much as I normally would over the break and just tried to maintain fitness, so coming back there wouldn’t be that lag.”
Captaincy:The Tigers are yet to make a captaincy call after Grimes and Toby Nankervis served as co-captains last season in the wake of Trent Cotchin stepping down.
Grimes will happily take on the role again, but said they were “blessed” with many options.
“When you look at some of the players we’ve got at the club, with Trent and Jack [Riewoldt] and such established leaders there, but [also] there are some young leaders coming through,” he said.
“My role as a leader won’t change a great deal, whether I’m captain or not.”
Thoughts on our recruiting:The Tigers made their intentions clear when they off-loaded a bevy of high draft picks this year and next to bring in established midfielders Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper from the Giants.
They handed both players seven-year deals, and the moves have been compared to Hawthorn’s recruitment of on-ball stars Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell at the end of 2016, as the Hawks tried to remain in flag contention.
O’Meara and Mitchell were coincidentally traded again in the most-recent trade period, with Hawthorn in rebuild mode.
But Grimes backed Richmond’s aggressive list strategy, saying Hartley and co’s track record demanded respect.
“I feel like the list management have proven their success in that way,” he said.
“You look back, and you’ve got Dion [Prestia], [Josh] Caddy, Nankervis and Shaun Grigg, who played in premiership years for us, so it’s hard to question their method when they’ve got those kinds of results on the board.”
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/bolton-re-signs-with-tigers-as-grimes-puts-hand-up-for-captaincy-20221219-p5c7hz.html
