The former Sandringham Dragons player then suffered a minor set-back in Round 4 of the VFL match against Williamstown. Richards was knocked out in the dying seconds of the game and as a result suffered concussion and missed the following week's match. ""I was really frustrated because I started the year playing good football and then that happened (concussion), which meant I had to sit a week out, which I really did not want to do. I have never been injured before, even in junior footy, so it was really frustrating,"" Richards said.
Richards has been playing in the reserves since his return in Round 6 and has been improving with each match. After playing predominantly at centre-half forward in 2001, in recent times he has been given the task of playing at centre-half back - a position he hasn't spent a lot of time at over his junior footy career. ""I am liking the challenge of playing down back. You have the whole game in front of you, so you can see what is going on and you can help set-up the play and move the ball down,"" Richards said.
Richards would ideally love to be playing seniors and that aim continues to be his major driving force. ""I am enjoying my footy but sometimes it can be frustrating. When you get in the best and then injuries aren't to people of your height or your position, and people instead of you go up. So it gets a bit annoying sometimes. By the same token you never want your teammates to get injured - you want to get selected on your merits,"" Richards is lucky that he has a number of leaders at the club to look up to and model his game on - James Hird, Scott Lucas and Sean Wellman. ""Scott Lucas has been a big help, especially when I was playing at centre-half forward. He is always giving me pointers and advising how I can improve my game,"" Richards said.
A major strength of Richards game is his aerobic capacity but he is conscious he needs to continue to improve his strength, particularly upper body to enhance his marking, which is a strong point of his game. “I did a lot of strength work over the pre-season with the fitness staff. It is a gradual process but I am starting to slowly see the improvements,” Richards said.
What Floody says:
Ted Richards is a pretty versatile player - he has played defence and attack this season, but I think defence will probably be his best position down the track. He can mark the ball well and he had good hands and he is pretty sure about himself - not many guys can go back into defence and take good marks like Richards. He is gaining in confidence and his kicking is getting better all the time. In the last month, he has really improved and similar to James Davies, didn't play a lot of footy before he came to Essendon. Hopefully by 2003 he will come on and be a good player for us.
