Tigers don't fear week-off flatness: Astbury (afl site)

[one-eyed]

Astbury's presser today:

VIDEO: http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2017-09-19/astbury-on-gws

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tigers don't fear week-off flatness: Astbury

afl.com.au
19 September 2017

THE TIGERS aren't concerned that playing one game in three weeks will affect the way they start in Saturday's preliminary final, says defender David Astbury.

Geelong and Greater Western Sydney won last year's qualifying finals, and were beaten in the prelims by Sydney and the Western Bulldogs after a week off.

Famously, the Cats were stunned by the Swans in their game with a seven-goal-to-none first quarter.

But Astbury believes the Tigers have done all they can to make sure they're mentally ready to explode out of the blocks and avoid a post-week off lag.

"I think once the ball bounces, you're not really thinking about that too much," Astbury said on Tuesday.

"We've designed the program over the last fortnight to make sure that we had a good hit-out as if it was game-like intensity.

"We really enjoyed that on Saturday and we think we earned the weekend off, and we think we're in really good shape."

Yellow and black fever has swept across the suburb of Richmond, with supporters thrilled with the club's position that also has its VFL team playing in Sunday's Grand Final.

There are no players under injury clouds and they'll have the majority of the state behind them on Saturday when they face the Giants at the MCG.

The challenge for the Tigers is to make sure their emotions remain on an even keel, despite the hype that's growing every day.

Astbury said past experiences had taught them, and namely coach Damien Hardwick, that trying to block out such excitement can work against them.

"It's a real testament to our footy club and our fans, how big a volume of people we can put in the MCG," he said.

"We really excited by that, and the footy club is awesome about letting us embrace the build-up and the atmosphere and stuff, and all the guys really thrive off it.

"I think 'Dimma' (Hardwick) would be silly not to acknowledge that it's there, he doesn't try and tell us it's not a big deal or that we shouldn't really embrace it.

"I think he's probably learned from past experiences to allow us to soak it up a bit and enjoy it.

"He's been remarkable in allowing us to enjoy the moment, and if you try and suppress it, you might find yourself in a little bit of trouble."

One AFL player who won't be getting caught up in the anticipation surrounding the club is ex-Tiger Brett Deledio, who is in the first of three years on the Giants' list.

Deledio will play his 250th game this Saturday, but can't expect to be greeted warmly by the Richmond faithful who are expected to greatly outweigh those supporting the Giants.

"I imagine the crowd may be a little bit hostile, that's a by-product of going from a big footy club to another club, and he'll get some sort of reception," Astbury said.

"He's going to be wearing a GWS jumper and that makes no difference to us.

"Brett was a very popular player when he was here and enormously talented, so he's someone we've got to respect. He's one who could really hurt us.

"He was a loyal servant of the Richmond footy club and we respect that, but he plays for another team now and we'll attack him like he's a GWS footballer."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-09-19/tigers-dont-fear-weekoff-flatness-astbury

[one-eyed]

Richmond Tigers defender David Astbury pumped up for sea of yellow and black

Ronny Lerner
The Age
19 September 2017

Richmond defender David Astbury has described the prospect of playing in front of over 90,000 Tigers fans at the MCG on Saturday afternoon as "awesome".

In what looms as an unprecedented event in VFL/AFL history, an expected sold out MCG will host a crowd that will predominantly feature fans supporting one team.

Richmond's opponents in the second preliminary final are Greater Western Sydney, who only managed to sell 1200 tickets of their club allocation on Monday.

Astbury said he and his teammates were prepared for the overwhelming show of support.

"We got a taste of it against Geelong a couple of weeks ago," Astbury said of the 95,028 fans who attended the second qualifying final.

"It was our away game, our away final and the Tiger fans that showed up there were quite extraordinary.

"I kept telling myself at different stages throughout the week I should be more nervous than this, but I was really relaxed and really comfortable going into it.

"Particularly in the second half I loved being out there and the atmosphere was remarkable and it puts me in good stead to enjoy the upcoming game.

"It will be awesome to be running out second on Saturday afternoon and it's a real testament to our footy club and our fans how big a volume of people we can put in the MCG.

"We're really excited by that and the footy club's been awesome about letting us embrace the build-up and the atmosphere and all the guys really thrive off it."

However, Astbury wasn't so sure that playing in front of such a partisan crowd would impact the Giants too much.

"They'll probably enjoy the prospect of coming here to a pretty hostile environment," he said.

"They're a confident footy team, and as they should be, they're proven, and we feel like that it's our home final but we feel like if they had the opportunity to come down here and play against 90,000 hostile Richmond people, they'd probably want to do it.

"You can talk about all sorts of advantages, but we just think the way we play is our advantage, not so much what the outside noise is."

Astbury said he felt a lot of goodwill from the public directed towards his team and described Richmond's bid to play in their first grand final since 1982 as "one of footy's good stories".

"So many young players in our side get the opportunity to perform on the big stage and it's huge for our fans," he said. "Obviously we've got adoring fans and very passionate people."

The 26-year-old credited coach Damien Hardwick's emphasis on allowing his players to embrace the hype surrounding the club as a key reason behind how far the side has come this year.

"I think 'Dimma' (Hardwick) would be silly not to acknowledge that it's there," he said.

"He doesn't try and tell us that it's not a big deal or that we shouldn't really embrace it. He's been remarkable at allowing us to enjoy the moment.

"If you try and suppress it you might find yourself in a little bit of trouble ... I think he's probably learned from past experiences to allow us to soak it up a bit and enjoy it because at the end of the day that's why we play AFL footy. We want to perform in front of big crowds and play in big moments."

Former Richmond star Brett Deledio will be playing for the Giants on Saturday. The former No.1 pick played 243 games for the Tigers, but Astbury said he would be treated just like any other GWS player.

"Brett was obviously a very popular player in his time at the Richmond footy club and enormously talented so he's someone that we've got to respect," Astbury said of Deledio, who will coincidentally play his 250th game this week.

"If we don't perform strongly he can really hurt us as we've seen on the other side of the fence.

"I'd imagine the crowd might be a little bit hostile, I think that's a by-product of going from a big footy club to another club."

The controversial pre-finals bye has been the source of much debate, especially considering both winning qualifying finalists lost their respective preliminary finals for the first time ever last year when it was first introduced.

The bye has been heavily criticised by some of the game's biggest figures as it means the winning qualifying finalists only play one game in the space of four weeks, potentially killing off their momentum and perhaps acting as a disadvantage. But Astbury wasn't too fussed by it.

"Once the ball bounces, I don't think you're really thinking about that too much," he said.

"We've designed a program over the last fortnight to make sure that we had a good hitout. It was game-like intensity and we really enjoyed that on Saturday and we think we earned the weekend off, and we think that we're in really good shape."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-tigers-defender-david-astbury-pumped-up-for-sea-of-yellow-and-black-20170919-gyk8w0.html