RICHMOND coach Ryan Ferguson has admitted that the availability of star midfielder Ellie McKenzie will be a "week-by-week proposition" after his side fell to Adelaide on Friday night.
McKenzie, who registered 15 disposals and 325 metres gained in the Tigers' win over Brisbane last week, came off the ground with an ankle complaint in the dying minutes of the game, subsequently ruling her out of Friday's clash with the Crows.
"We're hopeful it won't be long," Ferguson said of McKenzie's expected time on the sidelines.
"She'll be a week-by-week proposition essentially, just going to see how (her ankle) continues to settle and how quickly we can get it going again. But it will literally be a week by week proposition, I think."
Richmond missed McKenzie in the contest against the Crows, with Monique Conti shouldering most of the load. Conti, with a game-high 29 disposals, won more than a third of the Tigers' clearances, while the next most in the yellow and black had three.
"We missed Ellie a little bit today for sure," Ferguson said.
"So, just to make sure we've got some more dynamic players in there, it's more the balance than anything. We'll play around with what that looks like if Ellie's in the team, if she's out of the team, how can we make sure we balance up in the midfield."
Meanwhile, for Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke, the win was a just celebration for captain Chelsea Randall's milestone 50th game.
"Obviously it's taken her eight seasons to get to 50 games, which sort of highlights the brevity of the seasons, but she's had a remarkable career," Clarke said.
Juggling a strong tall contingent at selection, Clarke's preparation for a cold, wet Melbourne night resulted in Montana McKinnon's omission from the side, but the Crows' talls still shone with Caitlin Gould kicking three goals and Jess Allan winning 30 hitouts.
"It was a really tough call this week because Montana McKinnon's also had a really strong pre-season, but we thought with the conditions that it wasn't a day for too many talls. So, Jess has had a really strong preseason and she warranted the position.
"And 'Gouldy's' form, she's actually just worked really, really hard in the offseason and got herself amazingly fit and it was really nice to see her reap the benefits of that."