Richmond great Matthew Richardson has paid a glowing tribute to Shane Edwards in the lead-up to the triple Tiger premiership star reaching the coveted 300-game milestone against Brisbane at the MCG on Sunday.
“I think you always judge a player if he can make his teammates better. He’s made all of his teammates better with his vision, his ability to get other players into space and out of tight situations,” Richardson said on this week’s episode of the Club’s podcast Talking Tigers.
“You look at some of the stuff he does, you don’t really see it until the replay.
“The best one I can think of, off the top of my head, was that toe poke to Josh Caddy (2018 Dreamtime clash with Essendon).
“You didn’t see that until the replay. You go, how did Caddy end up with that? Oh, Edwards, toe poke.
“He’s done so much of that throughout his career.
“And he can mark the ball for his size.
“The other thing is his versatility. He’s basically played every role . . . He’s played forward, he’s been in at centre bounce, he’s spent time across half-back.
“A big-game player . . . a phenomenal career.”
Richardson recounted his initial impressions of a teenage Shane Edwards at Tigerland.
“I thought he’d just got out of kindergarten when he first arrived,” Richardson joked.
“He was the youngest-looking draft pick we’ve ever had.
“When he walked in, I went, how could this guy possibly be of draft age?”
