Tiger duo set to roar

Spearheads primed for huge 2020

RICHMOND forward Tom Lynch is already in full training and warned his deadly combination with fellow spearhead Jack Riewoldt will grow stronger in 2020.

Lynch’s 2019 pre-season campaign was heavily interrupted after he underwent knee surgery a few months before joining the Tigers.

This pre-season appears to be a different story, with the premiership big man avoiding any post-season surgeries to be up and about pre-Christmas. “It was nice to be in the normal program and not have to worry about rehab or anything,” Lynch said.

“I’m feeling great and I’m in everything at the moment, so it’s nice to be out there at this time of year instead of in the gym and swimming in the pool. It’s good to be in this position.”

Despite coming into last season under a cloud, the former Gold Coast skipper still played every game in 2019 and booted 63 goals.

He said getting a full preseason under his belt would better help him explode into 2020. “It’s good I can now focus on a bit more of my craft now and things like that compared to this time last year when I was battling just trying to get fit for Round 1,” he said.

“I obviously want to build on last season and hopefully improve a little bit going into this season.”

Lynch and Riewoldt managed just 13 games together in 2019 and Lynch believed their connection would grow stronger next season.

“I think the more we play with each other, the better we’ll be,” he said. “I felt like towards the end of the year our chemistry really grew and I’m looking forward to that really growing again.”

The Tigers have won two of the past three premierships, but Lynch said there was still plenty of hunger for more success. “To be honest we’ve well and truly moved on from the grand final,” he said. “It seems like a long time ago now and we’re really looking forward to 2020.”

“There’s still definitely massive growth.

“We’re still pretty young and we’ve also got (Alex) Rance coming back in and I’m looking forward to playing with him.

“I feel like we can improve, and every year the competition is improving so you need to improve.”