AFL 2024: Richmond star Nick Vlastuin on new reality and fresh coach at Tigerland
There was plenty of frustration for Nick Vlastuin as Richmond began to slide down the ladder. The star back discusses Adem Yze, bouncing back and why the 0-2 start wasn’t that bad.
At first it was just frustration.
His side was beginning to slide down the mountain and Nick Vlastuin was looking for anyone to blame.
A star defender through Richmond’s triple-flag dynasty, Vlastuin was looking around at a defensive unit filled with players he didn’t really know and his once-invincible team was suddenly very beatable.
Such is the life of a footballer in a team that was once at the pinnacle and is now looking up at the main contenders.
“Early days, it was a lot of frustration,” he said.
“Nothing is working, you feel like everything is against you, umpires, crowd, AFL, you blame people who aren’t even on the field.
“Early days it was a lot of frustration because you just expect it to still be like, we were good last year, why aren’t we good again?”
Now things have changed at Richmond.
After 13 seasons at the helm, Damien Hardwick suns himself on the Gold Coast and no Tiger had played for the club under a different full-time senior coach until Adem Yze’s first outing in opening round.
Vlastuin’s once herculean backline from those premiership days is being slowly dismantled.
After so many years playing with the same defenders, it was frustrating, too, to line up with others.
“You just expected it to feel the same and be the same but you are looking around and thinking, oh right, we don’t have Dave Astbury and Alex Rance, we have Tylar Young who has only been playing footy for eight years and is a soccer convert, we had Josh Gibcus, who was an 18-year-old key back,” Vlastuin said.
“It does change a lot. Early days I would get frustrated. It’s not the same, it’s not feeling the same. But I suppose there has been enough change now that it is a different team now, I have different expectations and I need to help differently.
“Not that we can’t rely on them (the new defenders) but I am not used to exactly how they play and how I play, so we don’t complement each other as much.”
Winless reigning premier Collingwood may begin to start feeling the pinch soon – it doesn’t take long for a team to lose its unbeatable aura.
And that can seep quickly into the players feeling a lot more vulnerable than when they were at the top of the tree.
“If you don’t get the results, it is harder to just make confidence,” Vlastuin said.
“(In) 2019, 2020, even if we were down by six goals we just thought we had the confidence that two weeks ago we were like this but we still got the win.
“Now maybe the results aren’t coming so you are wondering what is going to happen. So it’s more wondering than confidence, that might impact the way you play as well I suppose.”
It may have taken some time to adjust but Vlastuin eventually dropped the frustration in favour of getting better.
While he has started the season in vintage form – scooping up a league-high average of 11.5 intercept possessions through the opening two weeks – Vlastuin has turned his attention into helping his younger teammates.
“At the moment I am trying to help a lot of other people as well,” he said.
“Trying to grow the younger boys. I always cop a lot of s**t from the boys for playing as the spare (defender) but I am trying to help the boys learn that.”
NOT ALL THAT BAD
A five-point loss to premiership contenders Carlton last week came after Richmond copped three injuries in the first half.
But that didn’t stop some chatter in the AFL industry that the Tigers should blow it up and start playing the kids.
It doesn’t look so bad to Vlastuin.
“I don’t think we have started that bad. We had a bad quarter-and-a-half against Gold Coast where they kicked 10 goals and apart from that we were probably the better team in the second half,” he said.
“Carlton (in round 1), we had three go down early so I didn’t have a rotation after quarter-time and we were playing against two Coleman medallists with our two key backs on the bench.
“I don’t think we are going as bad as some people say. It is two rounds in, so we will see.”
With a new coach and a 0-2 start came new expectations outside of Punt Road and things changed inside too.
Gone is the big meeting one day a week, as new boss Yze spreads them out.
There were some grumbles about changes brought by the new coach in summer.
“Over pre-season we would do something different and a few of the older boys would be like, ‘f*** this, why are we doing this?’,” Vlastuin said.
“Then it was like, wait, wait, let’s give it some time. We might do it for three weeks and find out we like it, just because we have done it for 10 years this other way under ‘Dimma’ (Hardwick).
“It was about not picking the holes in all the change to what we have always done and try and embrace it.
“I am enjoying it a bit more, a few more meetings but they are spread out over the week.”
Following the legend is never easy and Yze has walked into a tough task replacing Hardwick.
He won the players over by quipping that he was desperate for his first win after the narrow loss to the Blues.
It took Hardwick nine losses before his first victor back in 2010 and Yze is trying to dodge that monkey on Sunday at the MCG when the Tigers host the Power.
“You just want to get that monkey off your back, otherwise it becomes a thing and the media might jump onto it,” Vlastuin said.
“He has been good, it doesn’t seem like he is under pressure because he isn’t.”
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