Tigers ready for Hawks: Johnson
2:56:33 PM Fri 24 February, 2006
Jason Phelan
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond skipper Kane Johnson is looking forward to gauging how far his developing Tigers squad has progressed after a long summer on the training track with the first-round clash against the Hawks providing the perfect test.
"It's always good to start the pre-season games - it's a true test of how far you've come as a group," Johnson said on Thursday.
"I think we're pretty excited to measure ourselves against Hawthorn this week - I think they're going to come out with a pretty strong side so it'll be interesting to see how far we've come."
Johnson said the Tigers would not be taking the match lightly and, indeed, could not afford to do so.
"I think every game you play you want to win, I don't think you ever go into a game half-hearted," he said.
"I think if blokes are fit you'll play them, but if they haven't had the pre-season you'd expected them too, you might just give them a rest.
"I know we're going to play everyone that's fit and I expect that Hawthorn will be doing the same because we're not fortunate enough, like some clubs, to have all the members out there, so we need to get as many memberships as we can at this time of the year."
http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=247467
