Pavlich, who battled knee soreness in the latter stages of last season, is highly unlikely to play against the Tigers as the club nurses him through the summer with a view to round one.
Assistant coach Barry Mitchell said midfielder Paul Hasleby, key defender Michael Johnson and Mundy would all get the chance to captain the club despite not being in the leadership group.
"It's great for those guys to step up and become the new leaders of the club," Mitchell said on Wednesday afternoon.
"[Mundy] gets his chance this week. He's been impressive in the pre-season. His leadership is going to continue to improve.
"It has to, because we've lost some experienced players."
Fremantle lost nine players at the end of 2008, including Peter Bell, Shaun McManus, Josh Carr and Matthew Carr.
Luke McPharlin, Aaron Sandilands, Des Headland and Antoni Grover make up the new leadership team while Mundy, 23, and Johnson, 24, are considered potential young leaders.
Mitchell said it was important the club established new leadership quickly with 14 new faces being drafted to the club.
"Experienced players go, and sometimes it's just the way it is that they run the show," he said.
"The new guys step in and they show the younger guys, and we've got a lot of them, the way to go about it on and off the ground and the way to communicate and get people into position.
"David's a really smart player and should be really good in the role."
Mitchell said he was expecting around six of Fremantle's first year players to be selected against Richmond, with high draft picks Stephen Hill and Nick Suban two players who have been pressing strongly.
"They've both performed well, so they, with a number of others, will be around the mark," Mitchell said.
"We're going to have 26 playing so there'll be a number of them that get an opportunity. We're going to finalise that today."
Chris Tarrant has stormed back into contention for the match after training solidly on Wednesday.
The hard-running forward had been expected to be rested as he fought for fitness, but Mitchell said he was now a candidate to fill the void left by Pavlich up forward.
"Tarrant trained strongly today so I think he would be in contention again," Mitchell said. "He's been tight in some areas, but he's missed hardly any training, he's had a good pre-season."
Other players likely to play forward against Richmond at some stage are Ryan Murphy, McPharlin and ruckmen Kepler Bradley and Sandilands.
Tall forward Adam Campbell will not be available for four weeks after injuring his knee in last week's intra-club match.
