Richmond are set to withstand attempting to tag early Brownlow Medal favourite Nick Daicos of their crunch AFL conflict on Friday night time.
Daicos is the speak of the city after the 20-year-old’s blistering begin to his second season with Richmond coach Damien Hardwick saying on Thursday he could not recall a greater profession begin.
Teaching his 300th AFL sport on the Tigers, Hardwick has his palms full with accidents to key males Dustin Martin, Jacob Hopper and Jayden Brief, whereas Nathan Broad is suspended.
In some welcome information for the membership Hardwick anticipated celebrity Martin, who has hamstring consciousness, to solely sit out one sport whereas Hopper’s damage was unrelated to his historical past of knee bother.
Hardwick stated Richmond would possible depend on a system somewhat than a tag to cease Daicos on the MCG.
“He is an excellent participant, however Collingwood have gotten numerous excellent gamers so we usually depend on the system to maintain it,” Hardwick advised reporters.
“We’ll have contingencies and try to handle him as greatest we will – he’ll get the ball, no query, so, can we permit him to play his sport and try to handle it and try to exploit him the opposite approach? In all probability.”
Hardwick likened the early affect of Daicos to a younger Chris Judd beginning out his AFL profession at West Coast.
On the again of his two dominant performances this 12 months Daicos is equal Brownlow Medal favourite with Demon Clayton Oliver and Carlton’s Patrick Cripps.
“Again after I performed Chris Judd got here in with the identical form of pedigree,” Hardwick recalled.
“He performed in opposition to us after I was enjoying at Port and kicked 4 (targets) in a sport, destroyed us.
“I do not assume I’ve seen a greater first 12 months from any participant and then you definately assume, certainly he could not again it up, however he appears to have gotten higher once more.”
Whereas Collingwood are unbeaten Richmond have opened with a draw and a win.
Magpies coach Craig McCrae and his assistant Justin Leppitsch have each hung out as assistants underneath Hardwick, who stated they knew one another’s sport fashion nicely.
“It is whose system stands up higher, and who brings nice intent,” he stated.
“We’re each territory sides, need to try to get the sport performed in our half whoever does that can clearly come out on prime.
“We in all probability have gotten an understanding of how they’re attempting to maneuver the ball, what they’re attempting to do with the ball however it’s straightforward to see that and attempting to cease that’s the subsequent problem.”
