Star Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt has acknowledged the impressive level of consistency displayed by key Tiger defender David Astbury throughout the first half of season 2017, and his overall importance to the team.
Astbury has played all 10 games so far and is averaging 14.5 disposals and 6.1 marks per match.
He is ranked No. 1 among Richmond players for total marks this season (61) and No. 2 for contested marks (15).
Bid on Dave's match-worn Dreamtime guernsey from Saturday night's win
The 26-year-old veteran of 70 senior league games has been taking, and negating, the opposition’s key tall forward each week, enabling star Tiger key defender Alex Rance to have more freedom to utilise his attacking skills.
“He’s (Astbury) putting a very, very good season together,” Riewoldt said.
“What he does is he allows Alex (Rance) to really excel at what he does.
“Being that assist player we need is really helping the backline . . .
“Our whole backline group have really developed a great rapport with each other.
“They work like a little mechanism, which is what you need from your backline players.
“Certainly, the pressure from up the field makes their jobs easier, but they’re very, very good players.”
Richmond’s defence is ranked third in the competition after 10 rounds, conceding an average of only 81 points per game to the opposition.
