Richmond’s captain for today’s opening round match of the AFL pre-season competition, against the Western Bulldogs at the Whitten Oval, Steven Morris, shares the same sense of anticipation as Tiger fans, with regards to seeing how the Club’s latest crop of young players perform.

Connor Menadue, Nathan Drummond, Dan Butler, Reece McKenzie, Jayden Short, Jason Castagna and Kane Lambert (a more mature-age recruit), who were all picked up by Richmond late last year, via the National and Rookie drafts, will debut for the Tigers in the clash with the Bulldogs.

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 “The young guys are fantastic.  They’ve come in and haven’t put a foot wrong since the day they’ve been here,” Morris said.

“I’ve been really impressed the way they’ve prepared for training, their dietary habits, everything like that.  They’ve ticked every single box.  I can’t wait to see them . . .

“A couple of them have got some real speed and it’s going to help us play the way we want to play – exciting, quick footy.

“It’s going to be good to give them an opportunity to run out in front of our fans, have a kick and a ‘catch’, and see if they can play some good positive footy that our fans want to see.”