Richmond defender David Astbury is confident the Tigers’ season will continue on an upward trajectory.
Astbury was one of six Tigers who returned from injury layoffs to lift the side to a 33-point win over St Kilda on Sunday.
WHAT'S YOUR FINAL 5? Attend any five of our last seven games at the 'G
A vital cog in Richmond’s backline, the key defender produced a solid return, finishing with nine marks and 20 disposals.
Speaking to AFL Nation after the win, Astbury conceded Richmond still has work to do before reaching its best football, but he is optimistic the Tigers can hit peak form at the right time.
“We’ve definitely got work to do,” he said.
“At this stage last year, after the bye, we were probably in peak form. It turned out that it was probably too early.
“We’ve uncovered a lot of depth and we really feel like that could be called upon later in the year. We are definitely not at our best but we know that our best footy is good enough.
“I don't feel like there’d be too many teams wanting to play us in the back half of the year, particularly with the calibre of player we are going to get back.
“I’m really excited. There’s some players I haven’t played a lot of footy with over the course of my career and I’m really excited to play with them.
“'Marbs' (Mabior Chol) and ‘Stacky’ (Sydney Stack) are a couple of those and we reckon they can really carry us forward.”
