Tigers target Tom
RICHMOND has faith in a twopronged defensive strategy as it prepares for Operation Stop Tom Hawkins at the MCG tonight.
The two- time Geelong premiership forward is experiencing arguably a career- best season, having kicked seven goals in each of his past two matches to climb to second on the Coleman Medal leaderboard with 48 goals.
But the Tigers are backing defenders David Astbury and Alex Rance to curtail the big man as they vie for a 19th straight win at the home of football.
“He’s in great form, isn’t he?” Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said of Hawkins.
“He’s sort of that beacon down forward and ( Daniel) Menzel’s another guy that gets under a lot of sides’ guards.
“We’ve probably got some players there that we’ll back in with Dave ( Astbury) and Alex ( Rance) who will play there and around Tom.
“I think he kicked three maybe the last time we played them ( in Round 13). He’s such a great player. He only needs five or six kicks to damage a game. That’s what good players do.
“We need to pay attention to Tom but also they’ve got some really cap- able players in that forward part of the ground that can kick goals, so it won’t be focused purely on Tom, it will be a team- based approach.”
Tigers midfielder Dion Prestia ( ribs) did not train yesterday and will miss the clash but the club is hopeful he will join fellow premiership players Jack Graham ( shoulder) and Bachar Houli ( groin) in making the trip north to tackle the Gold Coast Suns next weekend.
The Tigers are planning to play Houli for a half when he returns through the VFL tomorrow, Hardwick saying the defender had “turned the corner” after being rested the past two weeks.
Despite being exposed last week against Collingwood, Hardwick dismissed concerns over Richmond continuing to play only one ruckman in Toby Nankervis as Ivan Soldo continues to develop in the VFL.
“We feel at this stage we’ll probably just play with the one ruck,” Hardwick said.
“Ivan just keeps doing what he’s doing. He’s playing some really good football and there probably is a time. You look at last week, the second ruck probably hurt us a little bit last week but Brodie Grundy’s one of the best rucks in the competition.”
The opening bounce is set down for 7.50pm