Richmond young gun midfielder Brandon Ellis underlined his growing football maturity in last Thursday night’s season-opener against Carlton at the MCG.

Ellis, who finished runner-up in the 2014 Jack Dyer Medal, was slow out of the blocks, with just two disposals in the first quarter.

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By half-time, Ellis had eight disposals on the board and then, in the third quarter, he exploded.

The 21-year-old imposed himself on the contest, picking up 13 disposals and providing the Tigers with plenty of energetic run.

He finished the match with 26 touches, including eight contested possessions, an equal game-high nine marks and an equal team-high seven tackles.

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“One of Brandon’s fantastic attributes is his ability to run, and I thought he really set himself up with his defence,” Richmond assistant coach Mark ‘Wilbur’ Williams said on ‘The Richmond Review’.

“His defence put him in great position to get into effective transition, and he won the ball well, he received the ball well and in transition he set us up, especially in the third quarter, which was when our mark/play-on rate was something like 42%. 

“He was a big reason why we had such a good quarter because he won the ball, played on, set our transition up, and from there we were able to score and score pretty well.”