Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is looking forward to seeing the Tigers’ developing young backline spend more time together on the field in 2013.
Injuries cruelled the Club’s defensive stocks last year, with Dylan Grimes (nine games), Jake Batchelor (14), Ben Griffiths (nine) and David Astbury (two) all spending large chunks of the season on the sidelines.
Alex Rance, Chris Newman and Bachar Houli were the only Richmond defenders to play all 22 games in the 2012 season.
“The thing that probably hasn’t happened for us at this stage, is we haven’t been able to get that back six on the park all at the same time,” Hardwick said.
“I think we had the youngest back six in the AFL last year, and I think it’s one of the most exciting.
“A player like Dylan Grimes, who has outstanding leadership, great character, and we think is going to be a very good footy player, has only played about 15 games. I feel like he’s played 200.
“(Jake) Batchelor is very much the same, and we’ve seen the improvement in Alex Rance.
“Justin Leppitsch has done an enormous amount of work with those guys, and he’s jelled them into a group that is workable, and we think is the basis of a very good side going forward.”
Grimes has been training at full pace since the end of last season, and Astbury and Griffiths proved they were over long-term injuries which hurt their 2011 campaigns.
Richmond also added 140 games of defensive experience in the recent free agency period, acquiring Port Adelaide’s Troy Chaplin.
