The Tigers will draw upon some insider knowledge for Saturday’s clash, with recently retired Port Adelaide ruckman Brendon Lade now looking after the Richmond midfield while Hardwick himself spent three years playing under the tutelage of Power coach Mark Williams.
Richmond also have former North Melbourne opposition analysis coach Danny Daly on staff, who will provide some insight into the tactics that former colleague and new senior assistant coach Dean Laidley will employ on game day.
“Obviously we’ve got Brendon Lade who was just recently retired from there so there is some sort of advantage,” Hardwick said before the Tiger’s final training session at Punt Road on Friday morning.
“It’ll be a good challenge for our guys and obviously with Dean Laidley there it will be a nice tactical battle as well. We’ve got Danny Daly who knows Dean Laidley really, really well, so Danny and Dean have been very excited this week coming up against each other, and me and Mark also.”
The Tigers can also take confidence from Port Adelaide’s poor record of backing up the week after a trip to Darwin.
The last three times the Power have played in Darwin they have failed to win their next game and Hardwick said his side planned to play a hard running style on Saturday which could bring a potentially fatigued Port Adelaide to its knees.
“We talked about that during the week,” Hardwick said.
“It is hard playing up in Darwin. There’s no doubt the humidity takes it out of you and from our point of view we’ll be looking for every advantage we can.
“We’re going to play a running side, so we’ve got four runners on the bench. We’ve dropped Ty Vickery to just go with the one ruck and pinch hit with [Graham] Polak, so from that point of view we’ll try to run as much as we can.”
The Tigers will be missing the speed of midfielder Nathan Foley this week, but will regain Richard Tambling and Andrew Collins in the middle.
Foley has struggled with an ankle injury for much of the season and despite being okay to play this week, Hardwick said he wouldn’t take any chances with the 24-year-old, who would be back in action in round 11.
“In all honesty he could play but we feel like he’s one of those players that we don’t want to push,” Hardwick said.
“He’s got a slight niggle in his ankle, so from our point of view he could have played but we think he’s too important long term. We felt last year we pushed the envelope a little too much trying to get him up and right and it actually didn’t help his cause going forward, so he’ll miss this week and come in next week no problems.”
Young ruckman Tyrone Vickery will be rested for the next couple of weeks after having played every game so far this season but will be back in the side after the mid-season break.
Forward Ben Griffiths will become the eighth debutant for the yellow and black this season, and while many Tiger fans have touted him as the next Matthew Richardson, Hardwick said it was still early days for the youngster.
“He’s a big boy; I think he’s 198cm and about 100kgs already. He’s just a guy we’re just going to put out there and see how he goes,” Hardwick said.
“There’s no pressure on him, we just want to get a game into him ... and we feel he’s going to be a good player for our football club but the Richo comparison is probably a tad early.”
