RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says stopping Todd Goldstein, who he rates has the best ruckman in the AFL, will go a long way to his team beating North Melbourne in Hobart on Saturday.

Goldstein leads the AFL in hit-outs (203 at 40.6 per game) this season, with Hardwick saying he will present as the biggest challenge this season for the Tigers' Ivan Maric.

"Ivan's form has been pretty good over the course of the year but Goldstein is another dimension from a playing point of view," Hardwick said on Thursday.

"His form is outstanding.

"He covers a lot of ground. He's an incredible athlete for a ruckman and he gets his hand on the ball."

Hardwick said Brett Deledio will be back in Richmond colours this weekend, but it's still to be decided whether that will be in the AFL or for the Tigers' VFL side.

The star midfielder has "ticked all the boxes" to play his first game since round one when he suffered a calf injury and had been closely watched at training on Thursday morning.

"He's missed four weeks but he's got 10 to 12 years of AFL experience behind him and he had a big pre-season so it's a matter of whether we think he's got enough in the tank," Hardwick said of Deledio.

Deledio played in round one against Carlton, but has been missing since with a lingering calf complaint.

Hardwick said the Tigers had not ruled out starting Deledio in the substitute's vest, with the club to weigh up whether he has enough match conditioning.

The Tigers could be boosted by the returns of Reece Conca and tall forward Ben Griffiths for Saturday's clash at Blundstone Arena.

"Conca played last week (in the VFL), whether he needs another game in the reserves, we’ll once again make a decision," Hardwick said.

"Griffo will train today and we’ll see how he pulls up. We're starting to get some players back, which is exciting."

Hardwick said lapses at critical points in games were costing his side dearly.

The Tigers coach pointed to a patch in the second quarter in his side's nine-point loss to Geelong last Saturday where it gave up four goals in six minutes.

"We just can't afford to have those lapses," Hardwick said.

"That's the difference between the Richmond side at the moment and the Richmond side I know I can get."