Key Richmond premiership midfielder Shaun Grigg is confident a variety of factors will ensure the Tigers tackle season 2018 with the right approach, after achieving the game’s ultimate success in 2017.
“We’re really excited about it because last year was our first real crack at the way we played, the way we trained with new assistant coaches and different players,” Grigg said on ‘SEN’.
“The way we see it we’ve been in our program for one year. So we see a lot of upside to our game, offensively and defensively . . .
“For me, personally, because I’ve tasted the success, you want it again so bad. I’ve never had the feeling before in my life.
“And also, the competition for spots around the Club . . . we’ve got so much depth.
“Our VFL (team) played in the grand final (in 2017) and we’ve got a lot of good players who played great VFL footy all year.
“So if guys are looking too far ahead, then they’ll lose their spot.”
Grigg believes the Tigers’ playing style will hold them in good stead for the challenges they’ll confront throughout the 2018 season.
“Obviously a lot’s been spoken about the pressure we applied to the opposition (in 2017), which was probably the biggest change in our game, and we’re going to bring that every week again,” he said.
“That’s sort of the cornerstone of our game and it’s on us to bring it every week, which is really good, really exciting.”
Grigg is eagerly awaiting Richmond’s first JLT Community Series hit-out of the 2018 pre-season against Essendon at Wangaratta tomorrow (Saturday).
“I think the players have had enough of the pre-season training, running around the oval and competing against ourselves,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to going out there and competing against someone else and putting into practice the things we’ve been training and building on over the last year and a bit.”