IT'S NO certainty star Richmond recruit Tom Lynch debuts for his new club in round one as he recovers from a knee injury.
A posterior cruciate ligament concern restricted the key forward to 10 games in his final season at Gold Coast and gun Tiger Jack Riewoldt told reporters before training on Saturday morning he may not be alongside Lynch in the season-opening clash with Carlton on Thursday, March 21.
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"He's going really well. He's started running at a high pace. I had a quick conversation with him the other day about how he's feeling mentally and he's really tracking along nicely. I know our physios are really happy with how he looks," Riewoldt said.
"There'll be no rush with him.
"He's obviously a big investment for us and we're rapt to get him along, so we certainly won't be rolling him out in round one if he's not right. He'll come in at the right time."
Lynch went under the knife again in November.
It was a very light session for him, with the 2016 All Australian restricted to jogging and walking laps.
Another of Riewoldt's partners in attack, Jason Castagna, was spotted sporting a moonboot for an ankle syndesmosis injury he suffered at training last Thursday.
The club is optimistic it isn't serious.
He wasn't the only one to be hurt in that session, with Dylan Grimes breaking his nose.
The defender had his nose realigned in surgery the following day and is back training, albeit with a black face mask that looked like it was out of a Batman movie.
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Riewoldt has kept a "keen eye" on Lynch and is excited about playing alongside him, but isn't sure yet how the set-up will look.
"There's a little bit of the unknown. He's such a great player and we've got a really good forward line, built on some really strong traits that we know he's going to add to. The world's our oyster really with that," Riewoldt said.
"It may be a bit clunky early on but after that, I feel like we can work on it. We're both pretty unselfish players in terms of the way we want to play for the team, so that will certainly play into our wheelhouse."
In a lighter session that didn't feature contact drills, Jack Graham trained with the main group after his left shoulder reconstruction. However, he's being kept out of contact work as he recovers.
Superstar Tiger Dustin Martin and captain Trent Cotchin ran laps at one stage but then joined in again with the main group.
Riewoldt is captain of AFLX team Rampage and has his sights set on a couple of potential recruits.
"I wouldn't mind big Maxy Gawn. I reckon he'd go all right. He actually liked one of my Instagram posts, so I think he might be keen on the Rampage," Riewoldt said.
"Lachie Whitfield from the Giants as well is a guy who's under the recruiter's watchful eye at the moment."
