Hard, two-way running will be a major focus for Richmond’s midfield in Sunday’s Round 7 clash with Geelong at the MCG.

Assistant coach Danny Daly told Richmond great Matthew Richardson, on this week’s ‘Roar Vision Spotlight’ show, that the run of the Tiger midfielders held the key to the team’s chances of pulling off an upset win.

“A big emphasis for our midfielders is just the ability to run hard forward and get as many numbers as we can in the forward 50, because, statistically, we’re actually right up there in our inside-50s.  We just haven’t had the ability to convert yet,” Daly said.

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“I think our midfielders just need to have a real emphasis on pushing in real hard, inside our forward-50, and making them (Geelong) defend . . .”

That hard running by the midfielders needs to extend into the back half, to assist the defenders’ attempts to negate powerful Geelong forward Tom Hawkins and co. on Sunday.

“It’s a big one again for our midfielders, making sure they work hard both defensively and offensively,” he said.

“They (Geelong) are not a very big stoppage side . . . they like to transition the footy through turnovers, so the ability for our ‘mids’ to get back and support the defence again, is going to be pretty big for us.”