Maric suffered an ankle injury against Geelong in round six and he was rested against Melbourne in round eight after playing through the problem for one week.
His form is yet to reach the heights of 2012 when he pushed for All Australian selection but Hardwick said he was up for the challenge of taking on the Eagles' dominant duo.
"He's probably the freshest he's been," Hardwick said on Friday.
"Last year towards the latter stages of the year he did get very tired because he had a huge burden to bear.
"This year it's been a bit of a slower build up for him but he's starting to hit some good form now which we're excited by."
Richmond has named possible debutant Matthew Arnot and former Eagle Aaron Edwards in its 25-man squad, which will be trimmed to 22 on Saturday.
Hardwick said the Tigers were looking forward to the trip to Perth after last Saturday night's loss to Essendon, which he labelled the club's worst performance for the year.
"It's an enormous challenge, there's probably no tougher challenge in footy," he said.
"I think 60 per cent of their scores are from set shots, so that's something we've got to get our head around.
"Their ability to transition the ball is very good with their use of (Andrew) Gaff and these players on the wing.
"Then you bring in Nic Naitanui and you've certainly got another headache there … how we stop him remains to be seen."
Hardwick said he wanted to see his players take the game on after the Dreamtime at the G loss, which saw the Tigers grind to a halt when bringing the ball out of defence.
He said the team's recent form warranted a score of six out of 10, with the club's four losses coming against current top five teams.
"We're certainly capable when we play our best of beating those sides," the coach said.
"The thing we've been doing is winning ugly, which is something sides that are improving do.
"We've just got to make sure when we get our players up and going that we get consistency in our back six and our midfield.
"That will happen after the break."
Vice-captain Brett Deledio trained on Friday afternoon and will be fit to take on the Eagles after suffering a knock to his knee in last Saturday night's loss to Essendon.
Meanwhile, young midfielder Reece Conca will play 70 minutes in the VFL this weekend before making his return from a foot injury following the round 11 bye.
Hardwick described Arnot, who could make his Richmond debut in his second season, as a "solid midfielder" and a "tackling machine".
Edwards, who played four games for West Coast before moving to North Melbourne at the end of 2006, has been in strong goalkicking form for VFL club Coburg.
Nathan Schmook is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nathan
