Dual premiership Tiger Jack Graham took another significant step in his impressive development as a midfielder at the game’s highest level with a dominant Round 1 display against Carton at the MCG last night.

The 23-year-old, playing his 56^th game of senior league football with Richmond, notched several key AFL career-high individual statistics in the team’s 25-point win.

He had a career-high (and game-high) 33 disposals, career-high (game-high) 26 uncontested possessions, career-high (game-high) 11 inside-50s and career-high (game-high) 836 metres gained, to go with five clearances, five marks, three tackles and seven score involvements.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was glowing in his praise of Graham post-match.

“It is a transition game. If you can’t run, you can’t play. That’s as simple as it is. You look at the way he runs, and you watch the tape, he’s an incredible athlete that goes from contest to contest,” Hardwick said.

“The game suits him now, there’s no doubt. The way the game is structured now, because it’s longer, he gets better as the game gets on.

“He’s an incredible aerobic beast and he just can run. He gut-runs as hard as I’ve seen.

“We show our players vision of him all the time, how well he does it.

“So he’s been a really good player for us over a number of years, but I think his best footy is certainly in front of him.”