Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers are embracing the condensed fixture, excited for the opportunities it will present.
The Tigers will kick off Round 9 against the Western Bulldogs on Wednesday, July 29, the first of 20 consecutive days of AFL games.
Thirty-three matches will be packed across Rounds 9 to 12, with the Tigers set to play four games in three weeks.
Speaking to SEN on Wednesday morning, Hardwick said his "competitive beasts" were ready for the challenge.
"If they’ve got a decision to play or train, which one do you reckon they’re taking? 'I’ll play'," he said.
"They want to play every game they can. They would play every second day if they could, they just love it."
"It’s going to be a really challenging period but one that’s quite exciting."
The crammed fixture is also likely to provide the Tiger Army with the chance to see Richmond’s young talent in action.
Promising Tiger cubs such as Thomson Dow and Riley Collier-Dawkins, who have been waiting in the wings for their AFL debut, may now get their moment.
"We’ve got some younger players here that aren’t playing any games at the moment but they train and you can see that they’ve got AFL qualities," Hardwick said.
"This condensed fixture is probably going to give those guys an opportunity at some stage, which will excite our fans and excite our coaching staff."
When asked if premiership duo Bachar Houli and Shane Edwards could rejoin the squad at some stage, Hardwick said it was "probable".
"They’ve obviously stayed back (in Melbourne), both for personal reasons and both are still in those same situations," he said.
“We’ve left our younger playing group training in our Melbourne hub, but primarily also to help those guys train in numbers, so they’re still training.
"So, there is a possibility they could come over at some stage. But once again, family comes first at our footy club and we’ll support those guys as much and as best as we can.
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"If it comes to a stage where they can come over and play, they’ll have to do a couple of weeks quarantine, but they’re pretty good players so we’ll welcome them back with open arms."
With skipper Trent Cotchin set to return from a hamstring injury in the upcoming weeks, Hardwick said there will be a plan in place for managing him through the jam-packed fixture.
"He is training well and won’t play this week, but the condensed fixture will make it interesting for him when he does play or how many games he does play," Hardwick said.
"Obviously with the hamstring injury and the history he has it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge for us to manage that one."
