Despite ending the season with a disappointing loss to Footscray, Richmond VFL coach Tim Clarke was pleased with David Astbury’s return from injury and praised captain Ross Young for his leadership in the Tigers inaugural campaign as a standalone VFL team.

Astbury, who was a shining light for the senior side earlier in the season, played three quarters against Footscray after being sidelined for over three months with a knee injury. Clarke was impressed by how the tall defender immediately slotted back into his role deep in defence.

“Dave was terrific. Defensively he didn’t look like he’d missed a beat. He came back in and transitioned really well,” Clarke told Roar Vision.

“Offensively it’s going take him another probably week or two to get comfortable and then obviously if he plays AFL it’s a step up again.”

Clarke also lauded the efforts of Young and said the door is open for the 30-year-old, hard-running midfielder to remain at Tigerland next season.

“We’d love to have Ross stay around next year. He’s been fantastic on and off the field for us and he’s a terrific leader, great player and we really need him to stay around,” he said.

Clarke conceded that the fourth-quarter fadeouts that saw the Tigers finish 12th will be addressed in the lead up to next season. Many of the VFL players will now focus on playing finals with their local clubs while the AFL-listed Tigers will be motivated by the chance to play senior football.

“The AFL guys that have played VFL most of the year, some of them have gone in to get surgery but the rest of them are trying to push as hard as they can to get a last minute call up to a game, whether it this week or whether it be next week if we can extend our season by another week,” Clarke said.

“There’s still a lot of excitement around the footy club and that’s what everyone associated with it has to be driving towards.”