Armstrong, who is tied to Richmond through its Next Generation Academy, has continued his form seen in his early appearances for the Murray Bushrangers in 2026, accumulating mass possessions and leaving a damaging influence on the contest.<\/p>\n
In the AFL Academy\u2019s opening match-up against North Melbourne VFL, Armstrong collected 21 disposals, securing two clearances and made four tackles on the odd occasion he was second to the football.<\/p>\n
The 177cm footballer started the match up forward and was highlighted for his pressure acts inside the Academy\u2019s attacking half, before adapting to a role in the midfield as the game progressed.<\/p>\n
Armstrong\u2019s under-18 side was beaten comprehensively by 71 points, but the Kangaroos only outscored the Academy by six scoring shots, with an accurate day in front of goals compared to a not-so-accurate display from the future draftees resulting in the landslide loss.<\/p>\n
Against the side he may play for next year, Armstrong\u2019s comfort against seasoned, grown bodies only improved.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old collected 27 disposals and accrued seven clearances against Richmond\u2019s VFL unit, laying six tackles and taking nine marks in an all-round display in the midfield.<\/p>\n
Armstrong was arguably best on ground in the second and final showcase for his influence with possession, including a game-breaking second quarter effort where he had 12 disposals.<\/p>\n
The Tiger-tied gun showed his potential future teammates what he can do at ground level, and while he had a few kicks askew in the field and at goal, his midfield craft impressed across the match.<\/p>\n
The AFL Academy lost by 49 points in an improved effort compared to game one, with Armstrong\u2019s side leading at half time and trailing by just five points with a quarter to go, before Richmond ripped the contest away in the final term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armstrong, who is tied to Richmond through its Next Generation Academy, has continued his form seen in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-622728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}