RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace is wishing luck to any side travelling to Skilled Stadium to tackle reigning premier Geelong this season.

After watching his side get humbled by the Cats to the tune of 72 points, Wallace was at least thankful his side did not have to travel down the highway again this year.

“I can assure the other sides in the competition that they are up and running and ready to go, and I’m very thankful we don’t have to come back here for the year,” he said.

“Good luck to others who want to come down here and challenge them.”

Wallace said the side was simply blown out of the water in the second term when the Cats kicked eight goals to two despite kicking into a slight breeze.

A 90-point three-quarter time margin was reduced to 72 at games end after the Tigers outscored the Cats six goals to two in the final term.

Wallace rated the lop-sided scoreboard as irrelevant and said his side needed to fine-tune as it did in the wake of its NAB Cup loss to St Kilda.

“The result on the scoreboard didn’t really matter,” he said.

“What we need to do is fine-tune. We fine-tuned after the St Kilda game and won our next two. We were the bottom side in the competition last year and we’ve gone through a pre-season period and won two and lost two.”

The Tiger coach surprisingly said winning was not always a good thing at this time of the year.

“Winning sometimes masks things you really need to be working on,” he said.

“We’ve played Sydney, St Kilda and Geelong who we think are three of the better sides in the competition. Personally, I would rather go into a season proper having played the best and ironing out a few things rather than running around and getting false impressions of where you are at playing against inferior sides.

“I’m comfortable with that side of it, we just need to be at our best come Round 1. You guys will call as you want but you don’t get four points until two weeks time.”

Wallace said Brett Deledio, who had 18 possessions and kicked two goals, would play both midfield and forward this season. The former No. 1 draft pick spent a majority of the first half playing inside the 50 metre arc.

“Four years in the system is when you should be starting to have some impact and I think that’s the case,” Wallace said of Deledio.

“We expect those blokes to step up and we’ve got quite a few that are around that age. They’re not young boys any more, they’re young men and they’ve got to start mixing it in this competition.”

He highlighted the lack of talls down back as a critical factor in the loss, with Luke McGuane and Graham Polak out of the side. Both are expected to be right for round one. Jay Schulz is rated a 50-50 chance to make it to the season opener after injuring his ribs in last week’s practise match against the Swans.

Mark Coughlan, in his first senior appearance since mid-2006, came through the game well but had limited impact playing in the middle.