Cousins trains well ahead of farewell
Richmond said Ben Cousins had done all that was required of him in Tuesday's training
The 32-year-old, who has announced his retirement at the end of the season, injured his hamstring in the side's loss to St Kilda on Saturday, and it was feared he would not come up for this weekend's game.
However, he worked well, running slowly and twisting, turning and stretching, avoiding only kicking on his left side. Even when he was stretching his leg on the fence there was no sign of discomfort.
Richmond officials confirmed that by the time he ducked back into the rooms, he had done all the fitness staff wanted him to do.
Midfielder Trent Cotchin said he hoped Cousins, who has played with the Tigers since they threw him a lifeline by taking him with the last pick in the NAB AFL Pre-season draft two years ago, would get a final game with the club.
"He's had a fantastic career and we'd want nothing more than to have a send-off game and for Ben to be playing with us", he said at Punt Rd on Tuesday morning.
"It's definitely up to Ben, he knows his body best, and I'm sure he'll make that decision when it has to be made.
"He's going to get into training over the next couple of days, and hopefully the results are positive, and he'll be out there playing with us come Sunday."
But Cotchin warned that given the pace of modern football, no side could afford to select players who were not fully fit.
"Not really - it impacts your rotations, especially in the midfield as a lot of distance is covered.
"So we can't take that into the last game, a game as important as it's going to be for us and our supporters."
The Tigers belted the Power by 47 points in round 10 to record their first win of the year, and Cotchin said it would be great to beat them again, especially given their improved form since club legend Matthew Primus took over as caretaker coach.
"Obviously our win earlier in the year was really exciting, and Port have come a long way in the last four or five weeks, so we're really looking forward to the challenge.
"Hopefully it can be a really good game for the last one of the season."