Richmond great Matthew Richardson has paid a glowing tribute to David Astbury in the lead-up to the triple Tiger premiership key defender’s 150-game milestone against Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday.

Speaking on this week’s edition of the Club’s podcast, Talking Tigers, “Richo” highlighted Astbury’s importance within Richmond’s line-up throughout the past few years.

“You need a big body down the line that can play on the tallest opposition forwards and Dave’s been that man. He’s done that in three premierships,” Richardson said.

“The way that we played over those three premierships, where we were able to defend the ground so well and force the opposition to kick down the line, Dave was able to win the ball back in the air or just get it to ground and then we got our surge mentality going off that.

“So, he’s been hugely critical to those three premierships.

“You know what you’re going to get out of Dave . . . he’s so reliable and consistent.

“Being able to tick off the opposition’s tallest forward each week, over three premierships, that’s pretty good.

“His leadership down back has been important, too.

“With the way we’ve played and our system and defensive structure, you need leaders down there to keep that all together. And that’s Astbury and (Dylan) Grimes on the last line.

“They can see everything in front of them and that is critical to keeping the shape . . .

“It’s hard to find key-position players that you can rely on from week to week, so Dave has been a crucial part of the team.

“And he’s just a great guy, too. He doesn’t seek accolades at all. A very humble man.”

Astbury, Richmond’s third pick (No. 35 overall) in the 2009 AFL national draft, recruited from North Ballarat Rebels and Tatyoon, made his senior debut with the Tigers in Round 3, 2010 against Melbourne at the MCG. Richmond lost the match by 55 points, but Astbury showed encouraging signs as a tall forward, kicking three goals.

After playing 17 games in his first year at Tigerland, Astbury managed only 24 senior appearances over the course of the next five seasons due to a wretched run with injury.

But “Lady Luck” eventually smiled on Astbury. He was finally able to get some good continuity with his football and subsequently flourished in a key defensive post.

Astbury is averaging 13.0 disposals, 5.2 marks, 4.4 intercepts and 4.4 one-percenters per game in his AFL career.