Richmond fans have reason to be excited, with former Pick 7 Josh Smillie making an encouraging start to the AFL pre-season.
The highly touted midfielder arrived at Punt Road as part of the Tigers' bumper 2024 draft haul, but has endured a frustrating start to his career, with a string of injuries limiting his opportunities. Smillie has managed just four VFL appearances across his first two seasons, making his latest progress all the more promising.
Tigers assistant Sam Lonergan gave some context around the youngster's progress, even sharing an impressive moment during training earlier in the week.
"He's back training," Lonergan said on SEN.
"He's in that core group of 20 to hit 80 per cent of training. He's looking very good on the track, to be honest. Sometimes, when you don't see players for a while, you get shocked when you see how special they are.
"We did a little ground ball hand (session), six versus four drill into the forward line. He won the ground ball, slid to his knees, fended off one player, got up, exploded, a beautiful fend off on his feet, put someone else on their back and then powered on for another four or five steps.
"It was very impressive. But he's training and looking good. We'll have to manage his load, obviously. He's been in the system for a couple of years but we've got to make sure his manage his workload over the next six months to give Josh the best opportunity to be available for Round 1 and for as many games in the season."
Lonergan said he and the other Tigers coaches were impressed with the rate of development Smillie is recording in the gym, especially since he's largely been in the rehab group for the better part of two years.
His strength, coupled with his growing stature, which has increased from 195cm to 197cm since he was drafted, is quickly deemed a force to be reckoned with, especially in the midfield.
"He's 196cm, 197cm, midfielder and powerful. Explosive. I've not seen anyone his size and shape having that explosive power, which is exciting," Lonergan said.
"We were talking, and Jack Ziebell (Tigers assistant) said, 'I worked with him a little bit and leant on him, and normally, in the first couple of years when I leant on him, I could still push him around. (Wednesday), I said, "Hang on, I can't move him.
"He's getting stronger, which is nice as well."
Lonergan was once again confirmed as the Tigers midfield coach for 2027 upon the reveal of Richmond's coaching structure under Adem Yze for next year.
The ex-Bombers and Tigers player discussed his coaching ambition, which he said he developed late in his playing career as he struggled to play senior football.
Lonergan played 81 AFL games in eight seasons, predominantly for Essendon.
"Certainly not in my early stage," Lonergan said.
"But as I was finishing playing footy, I was at Richmond for 12 months. When you realise your career is starting to come to an end, you start to focus on other things, and I thoroughly enjoyed working as a senior player who wasn't playing AFL every week and got to work with young players.
"I felt the reward of supporting someone on their journey. That's certainly something I love. And that's continued."
