Premiership Tiger Nick Vlastuin has revealed just how Richmond coach Damien Hardwick helped the players and the club as a whole move on from the preliminary final upset as they prepare for the 2019 season.
After Collingwood beat Richmond by 39 points that ended the then reigning premiers year, Hardwick told the players, "shit happens".
โDimma just sat down and said pretty much โshit happensโ, put it in perspective,โ Vlastuin told the Herald Sun.
โHe looked at the whole year, pretty successful year โ we only lost six games and Collingwood just played too good that day.
โHe tried to get us to move on pretty quick because you donโt really get better dwelling on such a bad game for us."
Vlaustin was glad that the premiership cup headed to Perth since the players and the club did not really hear about it as much.
Off season recruit Tom Lynch has been dealing with his rehabilitation from a PCL injury and is keen to train with the players this pre season.
โHeโs going really well, heโs in rehab still, so not with the main group,โ Vlastuin said.
โPretty much two weeks before even our young boys were back, he was in there every day.
โHeโs had a pretty extended break so he was keen to get back into it.
โAs far as I can tell, heโs fitting in really well.โ
Vlaustin is pleased with the Tiger youngsters as they have been impressive but he still thinks that they will have to bide their time due to the more seasoned guns.
โGoing from preseason Liam Bakerโs been training really well in that small half forward role, but thatโs a pretty hard position to bust into,โ he said.
โWeโve got a couple of key backs who are pretty good โ the boys really like Ryan Garthwaite, so hopefully he can play a few games, but then heโs competing against Dave Astbury and Alex Rance, so once again, pretty tough.โ
