Richmond’s players remained confident they could reverse a tardy start during last night’s Round 1 victory over Carlton at the MCG.

The Tigers were outplayed early in the contest, at one stage falling almost four goals behind, before turning the tide and controlling the rest of the match, eventually winning by 27 points.

Young defender Nick Vlastuin, who finished with 21 disposals and was one of the Club’s best players on the night, said the team stayed calm despite falling behind early.

“We knew that our game was good enough to win,” he told Roar Vision in the rooms post-game.

“The ball wasn’t bouncing our way, and there were a few things we just needed to tighten up.

Catch up with all the news, videos and stats from the Round 1 win, at Richmond’s game-day hub

“The key message was not to panic, and to just keep playing our way.  To the boys’ credit, we did that very well.  It was great to fight back.”

To go with his high disposal numbers (which he achieved with 90% efficiency), Vlastuin also took six marks and laid an equal game-high seven tackles.

He was strong defensively, but also offered some quality run from defence.

“Over the pre-season, running off has been a key target, just trying to get my possession numbers up,” he said.

“Also, I want to beat my man.  I was pretty happy.”