RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick hopes his tall forwards will be able to exploit Carlton's undermanned defence when the teams clash at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

The Blues will be missing their best backman, Michael Jamison, and while star Tigers forward Jack Riewoldt has been down in form in recent weeks, Hardwick expects him and Tyrone Vickery to be very dangerous inside 50.

"[Jamison] is a huge loss for Carlton," Hardwick said at the ME Bank Centre on Thursday afternoon. "He's an outstanding player.

"Obviously with Ty and Jack and Brad Miller, those taller-type players, we feel we can get an advantage.

"Hopefully it comes to fruition at the end of the day."

The Tigers were very competitive when they last played the Blues on the opening night of the season.

They led at three-quarter time but were overrun in the closing stages and lost by 20 points.

Jack Riewoldt put in a heroic performance on that night, booting six goals and proving far too strong for Bret Thornton and Simon White (Jamison missed the game through injury).

Although Riewoldt was held to only one goal by Melbourne's All Australian full-back James Frawley last weekend, Hardwick has backed his man to turn things around.

"I've said it before, but for us to get better Jack had to kick less goals this year," he said.

"We had to distribute the ball inside 50 a lot better, which has happened. Ty has kicked 25, Dustin Martin's kicked 20 and Jake King's around the 20 mark also.

"Our offensive game has actually improved dramatically from this time last year and I think we're a better side as a result.

"Jack defensively has been a little bit down but offensively I've been really happy with his output."
 
Richmond's skills were poor against Melbourne and the Tigers have been working hard on the track to improve that aspect of their play.

"With the amount of turnovers we gave away in the back half, we were never going to win the game," Hardwick said.

'We spoke about it and went through some vision this week. The funny thing about a lot of those mistakes is they were caused by us.

"Melbourne played some good football, but a lot of the mistakes were uncharacteristic.

"We've learned a lesson from it and we move on to this week and hope to get a better result."

The Tigers will make at least one change to their team, with Jake King returning from suspension.

"He is important, there's no doubt," Hardwick said. "His on-field leadership and his ability to do the things we require is very, very important.

"He was a huge loss last week. The reports aren't great, but he plays with passion and that's one thing we love about the way he plays."