RICHMOND coach Jade Rawlings won't disclose why midfielder Shane Tuck, who has been recalled for Saturday's clash against Collingwood at the MCG, was recently dropped.

Externally the omission of Tuck came as a surprise. But Rawlings, who said Tuck had since been excellent for the Coburg Tigers in the VFL, was adamant he would not discuss the issues surrounding his relegation. 

"It wasn't easy to drop him, because he's actually a really good person and I played with him at Hawthorn, so I've known him for a long time," Rawlings said at Punt Rd on Friday.

"He's gone back with a fantastic attitude and tried to put in place the things we've asked him to improve on."

Rawlings said the Richmond fans could draw their own conclusions about why Tuck was initially dropped.

"I'm not going to talk about Shane's deficiencies through the media," he said.

Rawlings praised another recalled Tiger, two-time Jack Dyer medallist Joel Bowden,  who will play his last match against the Pies.

"He's been an outstanding contributor to the footy club. He's Richmond through and through," he said.

"The players hold him in high regard as do the whole footy club, so we'll go about it in a reasonable way internally and acknowledge what he's done and then he has his testimonial to follow up tomorrow night. So it'll be good to go to that function after a win."

Rawlings believes the players will respond well after a last round's 55-point loss to the Sydney Swans at the MCG.

"I can only go on their attitudes at the meetings, but they're in no uncertain terms about where we sit as a team at the moment," he said.

"We've been trying to make some changes in how they approach their footy and how they actually perform on match day, so it's a work in progress.

"It's a matter of how you bounce back."