RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers will have to limit the influence of ruck duo Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui if they're to score an upset win over West Coast at Patersons Stadium on Sunday.

Cox was best on ground in the Eagles' win over the Western Bulldogs last Saturday, while Naitanui is set to return this weekend after being rested for a week.

In contrast, Richmond has struggled to get consistent performances from its ruckmen this season, with Andrew Browne and Angus Graham both coming in and out of the team.

Graham and big forward Tyrone Vickery will be handed the task of keeping Cox and Naitanui quiet on Sunday.

"It's not often you tag ruckmen, but they're so impressive," Hardwick said at the ME Bank Centre on Thursday afternoon. "They're just impressive athletes."

Although they're coming off the bye, the Tigers have only 28 players to pick from.

Nevertheless, Hardwick is confident they can match it with the much-improved Eagles.

"We've probably worked on a couple of things in the past week that had fallen away," he said.

"Normally we've been a better transition side than what we've been over the last five or six weeks, so we went back to school over the course of the break and worked on a number of areas.

"We got some really good training sessions in, which is important."

Richmond has lost seven of its past eight games, so Hardwick is desperate for his men to use their last five matches to prove they are heading in the direction

"We think we've got some really winnable games," Hardwick said. "We've got some quality opposition we've got to play, but we won't feel out of our depth at any stage.

"It's just a really good chance to see … what we're going to bring out in 2012.

"There'll be some guys that will get some opportunities to play and we're very looking forward to seeing those players put their best foot forward."