The make-up of Richmond’s team for Friday night’s match against North Melbourne at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena is in doubt, with several players carrying niggles, and Troy Chaplin and Connor Menadue flying joining the group in the flight to Tasmania this afternoon.
Menadue was omitted from the side that defeated Essendon in last Saturday night’s ‘Dreamtime’ clash, while Chaplin missed the game with a hip injury.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said a training session at Blundstone Arena would determine the 22 to take on the Kangaroos.
“We'll have a session today. We've still got . . . a few guys that are a little bit sore,” Hardwick said at Melbourne airport on Thursday.
“We'll see how they pull up at training today.”
Richmond has struggled in recent times against North Melbourne, winning only one of its past seven encounters.
That victory (by 41 points) came in Round 23 last year, when the Roos rested nine players.
It was a tactic which worked, with Brad Scott's men defeating the Tigers by 17 points in the following week's elimination final.
Hardwick said stopping North’s ‘talls’ in attack would be the key for his team.
“The big one for us is their key forwards have probably been dominant at various stages – not all of them, but one has probably grabbed hold of us at different stages,” Hardwick said.
In last year’s elimination final, it was Jarrad Waite, who booted four goals.
Hardwick, however, doesn’t believe North Melbourne’s dominance against the Tigers was as overwhelming as it seemed.
“Our games have been relatively close. It's probably been three or four goals every time,” he said.
“We just haven't been quite able to bridge that gap.”