New deals for Bowden, Richo
4:00:45 PM Tue 30 May, 2006
Paul Gough
Sportal for afl.com.au
Two of Richmond's favourite sons - spearhead Matthew Richardson and full-back Joel Bowden - have agreed to new two years deals at Punt Road.
The deals were announced on Tuesday tying both players - the club's co-deputy-vice-captains - to the club until the end of 2008.
Richardson told a joint media conference at Punt Road that he was not looking any further ahead than the next two years.
"Apart from my wrist, the body feels good. We'll get through this two years but with the young side that we've got, I'd certainly like to play as long as I can as long as I'm contributing," Richardson said.
"I think there's a bright future with the amount of young players that have been coming on in the last eight to nine weeks. It's the most promising since I've been at the club. I'd think you'd say there's some exciting times coming up in the next few years."
"Once you get to the age of 31, I'm happy that the club has offered me a two year contract and hopefully I can play good footy in the next two years. It doesn't feel weird. Once you get to this age, you've got to realise it's got to end at some point."
Both players will now be given the opportunity to continue to lead the Tigers' re-building process under coach, Terry Wallace - which has gained momentum in recent weeks with five wins in the past six matches to leave the club on the brink of the top eight.
And it will give both a chance to push beyond the 250 game milestone at a club where their fathers both played in a premiership team.
Richardson, 31, has played 225 games for the Tigers and will be 33 by the time his new deal expires.
However he has played some of his best football in his long career in recent times and last year took the most contested marks in the AFL and the fifth-most marks overall in again topping the Tigers' goalkicking list with 65 goals.
It was the 10th time in the past 12 years he has been the Tigers' leading goalkicker and it was also the fourth time he has finished runner-up in the club's best and fairest having also done so in 1996, 1999 and 2002.
Richardson is again on target to be the Tigers' leading goalkicker this year, although he will miss at least the club's next two matches with a fractured wrist, and his career tally of 662 goals puts him third on the club's all-time list behind Jack Titus (970 goals) and Kevin Bartlett (778 goals).
Bowden, who turns 28 next month, has won the Tigers' past two best and fairest awards and has enjoyed a magnificent start to this season.
"This is where I want to finish my days as a player, a one-club Richmond player. So I'm very happy and honored," Bowden told the media conference.
"I'm very happy, the team's progressing I think. We've improved after the last few weeks after coming off a big loss to Sydney. We've learnt a lot from that game and we've shown in the last couple of weeks that we're a group that does listen and has learnt.
"Hopefully, because we've got such a young group, they can improve rapidly so that Matthew and I can enjoy the talent and expertise that Terry's given the young guys and we can enjoy a bit of success," he said.
Bowden brought up his 200th game during the shock win over Adelaide and has been one of the AFL's most durable players, rarely missing a game since debuting in 1996.
The re-signing of the pair also continues a long family tradition for both at Punt Road with Richardson's father Alan having been a member of the club's 1967 premiership team while Bowden's father Michael played in the Tigers' 1969 premiership win.
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