Astbury on SEN / We've definitely got work to do unlike 2018 peaking too early

[one-eyed]

The youngsters who could be central to Tigers assault

By Andrew Slevison
SEN
1 July 2019

Defender David Astbury has praised a pair of youngsters who are set to help Richmond launch an assault on the second half of the season.

The Tigers returned from the bye with a comfortable 33-point win over St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Sunday courtesy of seven goals between Sydney Stack (four) and Mabior Chol (three).

With seven changes to the side, it was always going to take Damien Hardwick’s outfit a while to click and that was the case as they piled on 10 second-half goals to just three after a sluggish start which had them trailing by four points at the main break.

And it was the presence of the unlikely goal kicking duo Stack, 19, and Chol, 22, that sparked the Tigers, delighting their experienced teammate Astbury.

“With a lot of changes there was probably a lot of unlucky boys but the way it worked, they were the youngest blokes we had out there,” he said on AFL Nation after the win.

“It’s great to see Mabior (play well). He’s unbelievably athletic and when he’s confident, he’s so difficult to play on.

“'Stacky’s' doing it all at the moment, at both ends of the ground.

“He’s quite a lunatic. We put him on our list in March, and just (love) the way he goes.

“He’s such a huge talent.”

Richmond is expected to charge home in the back-half of the year, but Astbury acknowledges plenty of improvement must be made for that to be the case.

However, he is confident the quality of those players still to return, married with the youthful exuberance currently on show, will take the Tigers a long way.

“We’ve definitely got work to do,” he added.

“At this stage last year, after the bye, we were probably in peak form. It turned out that it was probably too early.

“We’ve uncovered a lot of depth and we really feel like that could be called upon later in the year. We are definitely not at our best footy but we know that our best footy is good enough.

“I don't feel like there’d be too many teams wanting to play us in the back half of the year, particularly with the calibre of player we are going to get back.

“I’m really excited. There’s some players I haven’t played a lot of footy with over the course of my career and I’m really excited to play with them.

“'Marbs' (Chol) and Stacky are a couple of those and we reckon they can really carry us forward.”

Richmond, who currently sit seventh on the ladder, take on bottom-of-the-table Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/07/01/the-youngsters-who-could-be-central-to-tigers-assault/