Richmond defender Nick Vlastuin says the Tigers are primed for their qualifying final clash with Brisbane at the Gabba.
The Tigers haven’t played at the Gabba since round four, 2017, but Vlastuin said he and his teammates were relishing the prospect of an away trip after seven consecutive games at the MCG.
“We haven’t played there for two or three years I think, so it’s going to be interesting,” Vlastuin told AAP.
“But it’s always good fun getting away with the boys and then we kind of had just locked away the ‘G for (seven) weeks.
“So it’s probably good to just get out of Melbourne and it’s always fun travelling with the boys. You’re forced to spend more time together, which is always fun.
“So yeah, we’re really looking forward to it.”
Before their round 23 clash, which Richmond won by 27 points, the Tigers hadn’t faced Brisbane since round 4, 2018.
“We both got our first look at each other first hand to see how it stacks up against our system,” Vlastuin said.
“So we looked at some of the things they did really well and we’ll try and combat that. And they’ll look at what we did really well and they’ll try and combat that.
“So it’s going to be pretty interesting how different they play and what the coaches come up for us – how we want to change our ball movement and stuff like that a little bit as well.”
Vlastuin said Richmond would be focusing heavily on their contested ball after being “touched up” in that area in round 23, with Brisbane winning contested possessions 145-131, clearances 48-32 and tackles 72-47.
“We’re never going to know until we run out but they kind of touched us up in contested possessions,” he said.
“That goes a long way to winning most games, so we’re going to have a big focus on that over the next week or two at training.”
Vlastuin has enjoyed a fine season and was arguably unlucky to miss out on All-Australian selection in a year where the Tigers had to re-adjust after Alex Rance suffered a season-ending knee injury in round one.
He said in Rance’s absence, every Tigers defender had “stepped up that little bit” but All-Australians Bachar Houli and Dylan Grimes had been particularly impressive.
“Bachar and Grimesy have been super all year so I’m just saying it’s too hard to fit three defenders from the same team in the All-Australian team,” Vlastuin said.
“Yeah, Bachar and Grimesy have been super all year and (I’m) stoked for them.
“It’s been a good year – (I) started off a bit down just because of Rancey, we all had to change our roles and just work out how we’re going to work without such a good player.
“So it’s been a good year. I think we’ve all grown because of that – we’ve been forced to do other things as well.
“And yeah, it’d be good next year to have Rancey back but we’ve been playing (22) weeks now without him. So we’re pretty set in what we’re doing and it’s exciting.”
