Richmond will have a more solid preparation in Cairns, preparing for Saturday’s important Round 16 clash with the Gold Coast Suns, compared to the corresponding match last year.

On that occasion, the Tigers had just one training session, the day before their inaugural game against the Suns, which they subsequently lost by 15 points. 

This time, the Tiger squad will arrive in Cairns on Thursday, train at Cazalys Stadium at 5pm that day, and have another training session on the Friday, at 4pm, before the Saturday encounter with Gold Coast at 4.40pm.

“It will be really good to get a feel of the conditions and the humidity and those sorts of things,” said hard-running Tiger midfielder, Shaun Grigg at today’s training hit-out at Fawkner Park.

“Getting away together as a group, and training up there a couple of times, will be good . . .

“We didn’t play to the level that we wanted to last year up in Cairns and Gold Coast obviously got the four points, so we’ll be looking to avenge that on Saturday.”

Grigg said that notwithstanding the lacklustre nature of last Saturday game against Melbourne at the MCG, the Tigers were extremely pleased to notch their seventh win of the season.

“It was really good.  Most of the stats that we were after really favoured our way,” he said.

“The only thing was we kicked a lot of points and wasted a lot of opportunities.  But, at the end of the day, four points is what we’re after, and we got it.”

Grigg also confirmed that young gun, Dustin Martin, who received a two-match suspension for missing a training session last week, would travel with the playing group to Cairns for the match against Gold Coast.

“He’s in at the Club this week, training hard . . . we all support him, get around him.  He’s going to come to Cairns, so it’s good for him to be back,” Grigg said.

“He just loves being around the boys and he’s a very valuable player for us, so we’re looking forward to getting him back (playing) in a couple of weeks.”

Richmond has been forced to move training to a variety of different venues throughout the second half of the season, due to the redevelopment and reconfiguration of the Punt Road Oval surface.

It’s not something, however, that fazes the Tiger players . . . 

“It’s not too bad.  The boys have a bit of fun with it, training around the places,” he said.

“Obviously, the redevelopment is going to be a short-time inconvenience for a long-term gain.

“We’re really excited to have Punt Road the same size as Etihad (Stadium).”