A longer than normal pre-season is the reason Richmond rested so many of its experienced players from senior action against the Western Bulldogs in the opening round of the AFL’s pre-season competition.

The league’s 2015 season has been pushed back, due to the cricket World Cup being played throughout Australia until the end of March.

Richmond will take on traditional rival Carlton in a blockbuster season-opener at the MCG on Thursday, April 2 (Good Friday eve).

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Because of that delayed start, the Tigers opted to go into last Saturday’s clash with the Dogs at the Whitten Oval minus senior regulars in Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Ivan Maric, Troy Chaplin, Jack Riewoldt, Alex Rance, Dustin Martin, Brandon Ellis, Shane Edwards, Bachar Houli, Nathan Foley, Chris Newman, Reece Conca, Ben Griffiths and David Astbury.

According to Richmond coach Damien Hardwick, the majority of those players will line up in the Tigers’ next pre-season match, against Port Adelaide in Albury on Saturday, March 14.

“We’re still five weeks away from the actual competition.  Because we’ve got a week off, there’s no point playing them one week because we only wanted them to play two games,” Hardwick said.

“We went in with a plan.  We always knew with our guys, because we’ve got a week off next week, there’s no point playing them one week because we only want them to play two games.

 “So we’ve probably done it (pre-season preparation) in two stages.  You go pretty hard early, and then you’re probably just in a holding pattern for the last four to five weeks.

“I know it’s only a two-week delay, but it seems an incredibly long time, and that’s why we’ve delayed out guys coming back.  I think most teams you’ve probably seen doing the same.”

Hardwick, meanwhile, was impressed with the robust efforts of his young charges against the Bulldogs on their home deck.

“To see some of those players win some good contests and commit to some good bits of play, we were really pleased with what we got out of it.  You can’t buy that experience for the younger squad,” Hardwick said.

“The majority of the players we played probably won’t be participating early in the season, so for them to get a sniff was really positive.”