Summary
* Christian says to Greg it's been quiet at Tigerland. You wouldn't be minding all this attention on Carlton. Greg says yeah there's been a bit on Carlton - tanking, Fevola, who's next! Not for me to comment on the Fevola decision. Would like to but won't.
* The whole club is positive at the moment. Very good preseason. We've been able to get through with 95% of our players. We're ready for battle.
* Unavailable - Cotchin (4 weeks away), Casserly (slight hamstring strain), Meyer (hip operation last week). Everyone else up and running.
* Casserly - Christian played golf with Travis' uncle and he was pleased with how Cass was coming along in the second half of this year. Christian asked if Cass would be one to have an impact this year? Greg said he did. Missed first year with OP, last year got better and better and his preseason has been good. Just has a slight injury. Will play round 1 VFL next week but will rest this weekend.
* Cogs - not sure yet if he'll play round 1 (we know now he won't be). Everyone within the club wishes Mark the best. He's such a popular figure for a lot of reasons. He works so hard. Had OP after his B&F year and missed a whole year. Worked hard through that to get his core stability strong and then to do one then knee and then a second, we wish his all the best. He'll be back for sure but when I can't tell you yet.
* Structure tomorrow night?
Can say Thursty will play full-back becuase Terry has already said so (laughs). Schulz has had a great preseason. Put up for trade to Port last season and Greg thinks that made him come to the realisation with his training. His summer has been fabulous. His form has been good. Ran into Richo's knee at Narrandera and missed a week but he's fighting fit and expect him to be down back this year. Then there's Kelvin Moore who'll be the other key defender.
* Forward structure - plenty of debate amongst Richmond supporters about where is Richo's best position - in the goalsquare or across HF - plus he's another year older. Where will Richo spend most of the season?
You certainly couldn't tell he's another year older as he's fit and running around the place like a 16 year old so his enthusiasm for wanting to play the game is just fabulous. He'll play higher up the field. We'll have Pettifer, Browny, Lids plus a few down there. Expect Richo to be moved around a bit. He's a couple of years deep in the goalsquare but that was more in Frawley's time than Terry's.
* Johnson the job on Judd?
Johnno is a good defensive player. Plays on his man. Real team player. He sometimes cops criticism from uneducated Richmond fans which is unfair as he does the job week in week out. Ready to go. Time on Judd plus time on other players as he has the capacity to stay on the field at this stage of Judd's fitness probably for longer than Judd will.
* Simmo to carry the bulk of the ruck. Back and fit and healthy. Shocking run of injuries last year with his broken bone in foot. He's really looking fantastic. We were disadvantaged last year which is no disrespect to Patto but to have Simmo back in fantastic for he'll carry the bulk of the ruck.
* Anglea said Terry's been very quiet until this week when he's fired up over the criticism towards the Tigers. Can we conclude from that that some of the criticism has sunk in?
Yeah sure but if you 3.5 or 4 games you deserve that criticism. As Terry's said along we can only let action speak louder than words over summer and that's all we can say. Not only tomorrow night but the whole 22 round season. We're ready to go and Carlton has shown their hand that they're keen so it'll be a great match. Everyone is excited.
* What was the crux of Terry's message to the season launch?
Just that we've been working towards this. We've done the hard yards. We've spent the summer listening to the leaders of our football club. Been a slight change in emphasis there, more responsible to them and it's time they've got to stand up now. As a club we've got a great history and it's time to show the fans what we're made of.
* Tanking. Do the club have a view on what changes should there be?
Not an official view from the club. Very very difficult. Heard a lot suggestions on talkback radio. Up to Demetriou. Greg mentioned if you have a barrel for the bottom 3 then everyone will try to get into the bottom 3. So no easy answer. It was very important for the psyche of the club how we finished towards the end of last year. We won 2 of our last 3 games (sic - 4) and ran St Kilda to a few points so we were out there to win. So the emphasis over summer was to show what we did towards the end of the last year.
* Playing on a big stage with the game shown live on Ch 10 will be sensational.
