RICHMOND veteran Dustin Martin has been ruled out of the trip to South Australia to face Port Adelaide due to the back injury that has sidelined him since round 16.
The 33-year-old didn’t train on Thursday and will now be sidelined for a third straight game after missing losses to Fremantle and Greater Western Sydney.
Tigers coach Adem Yze is confident the Brownlow medallist will still play a role in the closing rounds of the home and away season and could return next weekend against Collingwood.
“Right now the frustration is he can’t train to prepare for the next game, whenever that is. Hopefully it is next weekend. We just need to get some volume into him, so hopefully he can do that next week,” Yze told reporters at Punt Road on Thursday morning.
“The back is still a bit grumbly. We’ll assess that next week. If we can get some training load into him, hopefully we’ll get him back for that Collingwood game. That’s what we’re aiming for right now.”
Yze expressed how hard it is for players tackling in the current climate, following the three-game suspension that was handed to Greater Western Sydney tagger Tloby Bedford for the tackle that left Richmond star Tim Taranto with a concussion.
“I feel for the players. When you’re in a tackling motion and you’re going to ground, it is hard to know what’s going on; a lot of times you might have your eyes closed,” Yze said.
“The bigger guys have an advantage with the fact they can let go because they are stronger. If we’ve got Liam Baker trying to tackle Patty Cripps, he is just trying to stop him from getting possession. For him to think of anything else is tough.
“It is a hard one. When you’re tackling someone and you’re taking some to ground, it is hard to let go – you want to finish the tackle. The main thing we’ve been coaching is no real dump tackles or driving motion.”
More to come
