NANKERVIS SIGNS UP

RICHMOND has just four premiership players out of contract at the end of this year, with a trio of Tigers this week signing new extensions on their deals.

Tasmanian ruck revelation Toby Nankervis has added an extra year to his current three-year contract, locking him in at Punt Rd until at least the end of 2020. Defender Dylan Grimes, who was due to be out of contract at the end of this year, has also been locked away until 2021 while grand final hero Jack Graham has inked a two-year extension beyond 2018.

The signings leave defenders Nathan Broad and Bachar Houli, midfielder Shaun Grigg and forward Jacob Townsend as the only 2017 premiership players out of contract this year.

Grimes, who played every game last season for the first time in his eight-year career, said the team had shown a clear desire to stick together and continue to build on last year’s success.

“I’m super proud to be part of this great club and a club that’s got so much improvement left in the future,” he said.

“We’ve got a really tight-knit group at the moment and our connection, our bond, is something that we’ve invested a lot in the last couple of years and I think we’re seeing rewards from that with a lot of players wanting to stay and also attracting a lot of new talent as well.”

Grimes said Nankervis had taken “another stride forward” with his game over the pre-season.

ST KILDA young gun Jack Billings has developed a new run-up in a bid to mend his goalkicking woes.

The 22-year-old has been one of several Saints working closely with the club’s new goalkicking coach Ben Dixon over summer after the side finished with a scoring accuracy of 52 per cent last season — the equal worst in the competition alongside Western Bulldogs.

Billings, pictured, was one of the worst offenders, his scoring accuracy coming in at just 34 per cent as the forward finished with 23.36 to his name.

However, Billings said he was confident of improving those figures this year after working hard on the skill over the off-season.

“[Dixon’s] come in and not only me but a lot of the forwards have worked pretty closely with him,” Billings said.

“He’s been really great and hopefully we can see the good signs this year, but I guess you’ve just got to wait and see.

“Without giving too much away I’ve just changed my runup a little bit and just got it a lot more smoother and tried to make it more similar to my field kicking.

“So that’s been the main thing and it’s working well at the moment so hopefully it can continue.”

While he hopes the goalkicking fix will make him a better forward, Billings is also targeting more midfield time this year.

“[I] probably spent more time forward last year so the aim this year is to hopefully spend about half and half,” Bil- lings said of his midfield-forward mix.

“I’ve just kept trying to improve my running capacity and my strength, which I think I’ve been able to do and just training a lot more with the midfield [group].

“As a team we just hopefully want to play finals so everyone needs to stand up and go to that next level if we want to do that.”