Jacob Blight has made an eye-catching start to his playing career at Richmond.

The 22-year-old, 196cm key defender, recruited by the Tigers from WAFL club Peel Thunder, with their first pick (No. 2 overall) in the recent AFL mid-season rookie draft, has had a significant impact in three games at VFL level.

He is averaging 18.6 disposals, 7.6 marks and 5.6 inside-50s per match, and has polled coaches votes in two of this three games.

Richmond VFL coach Steve Morris is extremely impressed with how Blight has seamlessly made the transition to Tigerland.

“He’s just a wonderful kid to work with . . . fitted into the group really well,” Morris told Richmond Media.

“He’s a big body that’s going to help us moving forward.

“So, really pleased to be able to see him stamp his authority on VFL footy really quickly.”

Blight again was one of the best for the VFL Tigers in their loss to Box Hill Hawks last Saturday, finishing the match with 18 disposals, eight marks and four rebound-50s.

Here is how coach Morris assessed that performance in his weekly VFL players’ report on the Club’s website . . .

“Jacob was a wall down back for us. I thought he gave us an opportunity to win the game by really reducing the impact of their tall forwards. He took a number of intercept marks, and his defence was really solid on the day.”