RICHMOND has named an unchanged team from last Sunday's smashing of West Coast, and it's the same story in the coaches box.

Senior coach Terry Wallace has spent the last few days in hospital with a respiratory infection, but he's certain to have both hands on the wheel for Saturday's big clash with fellow finals-aspirants Essendon.

Assistant coach Brian Royal said Wallace was certain to be driving the boat at what is expected to be a wet MCG.

"Terry's fine to coach," he said on Friday morning."Terry's again spent the night in hospital last night, just to continue the medication, but he'll definitely coach.

"But the thing that you can't do is discount these viruses and infections, and I guess that the precautionary measure of going into hospital and making sure he gets the right medication has probably allowed him to get better a little bit quicker.

"It's just a really bad cold, and the plane flight and obviously the interstate trip has probably brought it on a lot quicker."

Royal said the club has looked into the logistics of making life a bit easier for the 49-year-old – who ran the team meeting on Friday morning – on matchday.

"Probably some of the harder things is climbing the 90 stairs to get up to the coaches box at the MCG, but there's a lift, and we'll put a few things in place which will allow Terry to get down on the ground.

"If it comes to the crunch throughout the course of the game where I've got to speak to the players at the breaks, we can work that out as the game goes on.

"Terry's been laid up in hospital or in bed, he's going to be weak to a certain extent, so I think it's up to all our coaches to help Terry out, as we do most match days anyway.

"It's work as normal – we all contribute on gameday, so  I don't see it being any different."