Raines ready for TigersBy Michael Whiting
4:39 PM Fri 03 Aug, 2012HE'S played the old team twice already, but Andrew Raines still gets a kick out of taking on Richmond.
Raines is in his third season at the Brisbane Lions after heading home to Queensland from the Tigers at the end of 2009.
When the teams square off at the Gabba on Saturday night, the 26-year-old tagger will have one of the most influential roles in the contest.
Whether it's Trent Cotchin or Dustin Martin, Raines will be assigned the shutdown role on one of the Tigers' prime movers.
He was playing coy ahead of the Lions' final training session at the Gabba on Friday afternoon, but said he didn't mind which Tiger he ended up manning.
Raines played two injury-riddled seasons alongside Cotchin in 2008 and 2009, but left the club prior to Martin's arrival.
"It's always good to play against your old mates but they're not mates when you go to battle," Raines said.
"I'm doing a fair bit of research on their midfield, they've got a quality midfield these days.
"They're (Cotchin and Martin) genuine stars of the AFL. They've got some quality players and if they're up and about it definitely goes a long way to their success in winning.
"That's my job. I've got to play on the best each week. Each week is a quality A-Grade midfielder and that's the attitude I've got to have."
After making his debut for Richmond in 2004, Raines shot to prominence with a brilliant 2006 season that netted the running half-back second in the club's best and fairest and second in the NAB Rising Star award.
However, injuries limited him to just five games across 2008-2009 before he came to the Lions.
Since heading north, Raines has not had a win against the Tigers, and had to watch from the grandstand in round 13 last year as Cotchin and Martin cut the Lions to ribbons.
Cotchin had a telling 30 disposals, including a classy left foot snapped goal, while Martin split the game wide open with four of his five goals coming in the second half.
Raines is expecting the under-siege Tigers to bring their best to Brisbane.
"There's been a fair bit of speculation in Melbourne about them. They're an exciting team and they'll come up here with a fair bit of confidence winning the last couple of times against us and (it) is something they'll be looking forward to," he said.
"We haven't been playing our best football over the past couple of weeks but I'm sure we'll bounce back on our home turf and it's an important game for us."
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