With his bright red hair and famous surname, Bulldogs youngster Ed Richards has been hard to miss in the early stages of his AFL career, but it’s his game that has done all of the talking so far.   

The Dogs have had the League’s youngest team in the opening three weeks of the season, and Richards, along with fellow youngsters Tim English and Aaron Naughton, have all shown signs that they below at the top level despite just nine total games between them.  

Asked about the 18-year-old Richards on Triple M on Monday, Marcus Bontempelli, said he has all of the attributes make an impact for years to come.

“He's good, the kid,” Bontempelli said.

“He's got some great speed,which we love from our high defenders, but it’s his ability to impact the game in all scenarios, whether it be winning the ball, working hard back to chase and influence that stand out to me. 

“His composure is the element of the game (I like). He's able to move quickly but sort of slow down as well and set up the game and set up the field.”

Richards had 17 disposals on Sunday, six more than his debute, and laid five tackles, but most of all looked comfortable and composed in just his second game of football.   

The scouting reports on the former Oakleigh Charger spoke equal parts classy ball user, and grunt, where his competitiveness regularly impressed recruiters ahead of the 2017 Draft, where he was snapped up with the 16th pick.

The Dogs are now 1-2 on the season after Sunday’s win over the Bombers and Bontempelli says the Club will look to ride the momentum of the weekend into Saturday’s clash with the visiting Swans.

“We'll take a lot out of this weekend's game and we'll look to grow that even more,” he said.

“Sydney looked really good on the weekend, they never seem to regress, they’re always at that same competitive style of play, but we'll have to face that full on and really ride this week into next.”