Top Tiger defender Nick Vlastuin provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an assessment of the team’s, and his own, 2018 season. 

The Tiger Army

“A massive thanks to the Tiger Army. Playing in front of all those big crowds at the ‘G’ just gives you that extra little bit. I always like bragging to some of my other mates from the other clubs, who get to play in front of 10,000 or something like that, that we play in front of 80,000 pretty much every week. So a massive thanks.”

Reaching the 100-game milestone

“I was meant to play it against Melbourne (in Round 5), but I ended up missing that game with a calf injury. So I had all the family fly down from New South Wales and they missed it. And then the next week, against Collingwood, I finally got to run out for it. It’s gone pretty quick. Didn’t really ever expect to play 100 games to be honest, so it’s cool.” 

Individual season appraisal

“My season, as a whole, was good in patches. I think I had a good middle period and then after I did something silly and elbowed a bloke, I trailed off a little bit towards the end of the year. And then a disappointing final game to the year, probably like most of the boys.

The backline group

“Playing in the backline this year’s been unreal. ‘Truck’ (Ben) Rutten (backline coach), even though we’re losing him, has been massive for us the last three or four years. When you’ve got Dave (Astbury), ‘Grimesy’ (Dylan Grimes) and ‘Rancey’ (Alex Rance) behind you, and then Bacher (Houli) and ‘Shorty’ (Jayden Short), ‘Brando’ (Brandon Ellis) and ‘Broady’ (Nathan Broad) next to me, it does fill you with confidence. You can always rely on them if you do something silly and your man gets out. And then just with the pressure up the field as well, it makes our job a lot easier. We do love playing together. Pretty sure we’ll all be there (in the backline) next year as well, so it should be fun.”

His move forward v St Kilda in Round 10

“My time up forward, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I think ‘Pup’ (Jack Riewoldt) got knocked out that game, and that’s why I went up forward . . . I didn’t really have much help up there, like where to stand, structures and all that, so I kind of just ran around like an idiot, I suppose. It turned out all right in the end. Went forward a couple of times later on in the year and it didn’t go so well, so probably won’t be going up there too often. Definitely prefer down back.”

Individual areas of improvement

“Not specific areas, but just overall. I think everyone wants to get better. How I do that is probably just getting more fit, learning my role better, continuing to build that connection with the other backs, and just enjoy footy again.”