Richmond great Matthew Richardson has paid a glowing tribute to triple Tigers premiership star defender Dylan Grimes, who announced his playing retirement from AFL football this week following an illustrious 234-game career at Punt Road.

Richardson, speaking on this week’s episode of the Talking Tigers podcast, described Grimes as “an absolute star”.

“In 2019, that was probably the pinnacle of his powers, I reckon . . . his All-Australian year. And he needed to be that player that year with ‘Rancey’ (Alex Rance) going down in Round 1 with the ACL,” Richardson said.

“When you look at ‘Grimesy’, you just think what a leader he was for that backline, because he could play on anyone.

“He could play on Toby Greene, and I believe Toby said he was one of his toughest opponents. He could play on the ‘smalls’, he could play on Eddie Betts, he could play on Charlie Cameron, he could play on Jeremy Cameron, Tex Walker . . .

“His closing speed as a defender was one of his great assets. His agility as a defender, and then as he developed along the way, he then had the ability to win the ball back.

“Probably early days he defended, but then he really developed into an interceptor as welI.

“I reckon in 2019 he was just about the best defender in the game. I remember a game at the Adelaide Oval, in a final, he was huge.

“He should be extremely proud of what he achieved throughout his career.”