27/06/2008 1:20 PM
He's been a revelation this season playing upfield, but back in Round 1, Richmond veteran Matthew Richardson was the Tigers' match-winner against Carlton when stationed closer to goal.
It was the 33-year-old's five majors that day that proved the difference, literally, in Richmond's 30-point result which cruelled the Blues' hopes of celebrating the new season, and their new captain's debut, with a win over bitter arch rivals.
Thirteen rounds on, 'Richo' has been named on a wing for Saturday's return bout at the MCG, but, according to Carlton assistant coach Gavin Crosisca, the Blues are assuming nothing about how he may be deployed.
"Anywhere he plays he's going to be dangerous, he's a pretty good player, 'Richo', said Crosisca ahead of training at Princes Park on Friday morning.
"He is hard to match-up on, he's the olden-day type of 'Buddy' Franklin, I suppose."
"We've got a couple of options for him whether he plays deep in the forward line or up on the wing, or whether he does go up and back."
"It's one thing we're building into our back six, that's flexibility - the guys can size and shape on all types and they've been doing a reasonable job of that recently … but whoever gets him will have a tough job."
Crosisca pledged that whatever happens, the Blues' back six for whom he has responsibility, will be more committed than they were last Sunday when the Bombers scored the first four and the last four goals of the match en route to an upset 35-point win.
"We need to bring an aggressive game to the table this week and that's one area that we really let ourselves down last week," he said.
"We really just didn't play an accountable or a physical type of game especially in the first quarter and that's when we were smashed."
Crosisca said the inclusion of leading forward Jake Edwards would help to take the focus off Brendan Fevola who's been the Blues' first and last forward option for much of the season.
"We need to bring the other forwards into play and share the load a little bit, even to bring 'Fev' into the game a little bit more in different aspects," he said.
"Hopefully he can tell 'Fev' to get out of his way a couple of times and take over the forward line."