RICHMOND'S Nathan Broad has been given no guarantee his return to the AFL side will coincide with the end of his club suspension, with the in-form Tigers facing a selection squeeze for Saturday's clash with Brisbane.
The premiership defender is available this week after serving a three-game sanction. He played one JLT Community Series game back in early March and was good without starring in the VFL Tigers' season-opening win over Port Melbourne on Saturday.
With Jayden Short and Reece Conca putting in solid performances in their win over Hawthorn on Sunday, Broad won't be a walk-up start for the clash with the Lions.
"He'll certainly be considered," Richmond football manager Neil Balme told AFL.com.au.
"Conditioning-wise, he's fine. He's run well, he's played pretty well so we've been quite pleased with him.
"The fact he hasn't been able to play AFL footy won't work for him, but he's in pretty good shape.
"We're in a good position from the point of view of selection, there'll be a lot more than 22 we'll want to pick."
The VFL Tigers have a bye this week, meaning Broad and others who miss out will likely have to make do with a heavy training session in place of a game.
Midfielder Dion Prestia will again have to prove his fitness at training this week after missing Sunday's game with a sore glute.
Prestia is coming off a limited pre-season with a pre-Christmas ankle injury healing only for him to suffer a hamstring complaint in February.
He missed both JLT games and has played just 75 per cent of a VFL practice match this year.
He was named in last week's AFL squad but withdrawn on Friday after pulling up sore from training.
"We were conservative with him," Balme said.
"We're hopeful the soreness will settle, and he'll be able to do a full week of training.
"He's just got to be able to train and show us that he's right, so we don't have to take a punt on his condition.
"We're relatively confident but I wouldn't put any money on it as yet."
Josh Caddy is available after serving a one-match suspension and looks likely to displace Sam Lloyd, who didn't star in his first AFL game for the year on Sunday.
Young energy ball Jack Higgins overcame a nervous start to provide a couple of crowd-pleasing moments in his two-goal AFL debut and will be an unpopular omission if he goes out.
Alex Rance and Nick Vlastuin are both available after being hit with $2000 fines rather than suspensions for actions against Hawthorn's Luke Breust.
Further complicating selection is the Tigers' almost non-existent injury list, and the fact Corey Ellis and Shai Bolton responded to their omissions last week with standout games in the VFL.
Midfielder Anthony Miles also continued to rack up possessions and kicked two goals to be judged as the side's best.
