With Tiger backmen Alex Rance and Luke McGuane out suspended, Damien Hardwick had to rely on youngsters David Astbury and Dylan Grimes to man Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead last Saturday night.
While they'll get 67-gamer Will Thursfield back this week, Collingwood forward Travis Cloke says the Magpies will attempt to stretch their opposition's defence and expose its inexperience.
"They've also got Kelvin Moore out at the moment and he's a very strong defender for them, and looking at last week's game against Hawthorn, Buddy and Roughead got on top of them," he told afl.com.au ahead of the game.
"We've looked at their game last week and will hopefully use those players and tactics Hawthorn used against them to our advantage.
"They've still got some good backs down there and they'll be looking to do their job and I'm sure they'll help out one another to cut across and spoil the ball.
"We're not going in there at all thinking it's going to be an easy game. Last week when we had [Carlton defender] Matthew Watson playing against us, he was a very young player but was very stable and mature."
Even so, the Tigers will have their work cut out for them given the plethora of Pie goal-kickers currently in form.
Small forward Jarryd Blair currently leads the race for the Coleman Medal with 10 goals (equal with Carlton's Jeff Garlett and the Western Bulldogs' Barry Hall), with Cloke and fellow big target Chris Dawes closing in with nine each.
Cloke said Dawes' impressive form, which has seen the premiership forward kick multiple goals in all three rounds so far, and increased reliability had allowed him more freedom in the forward 50m.
"It definitely does help when you have a forward in form, it's always nice," he said.
"With 'Dawesy' playing so well, and we're such similar players with endurance, body shape and strength-wise, it definitely adds to our team dimension and gives us a lot more options going forward."
Richmond enters the match winless but having shown patches of strong form against Carlton in round one and in its round two draw with St Kilda.
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse labelled the young Tigers dangerous, and Cloke said the Pies wouldn't take them lightly despite the two side's standing on opposite halves of the ladder.
"I don't think the results really show what Richmond's capable of at the moment," he said.
"They're quite a good team and they've got a pretty potent forward line, so it's going to be an interesting one."
