What to do about Gazza? It's Richmond coach Damien Hardwick's turn to mull over how to limit the damage of the AFL's most prolific ball magnet.
Hardwick and his assistants will probably be tossing up the options on Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett even as they board the plane for Cairns today.
The Tigers have studied how other clubs tackled the Ablett phenomenon, particularly Adelaide skipper Nathan Van Berlo this season.
"We do look at a few. "Probably the guy who best did the job was Van Berlo. "I think Gary still had close to 30 (touches) and kicked two goals, but his influence wasn't quite the same.
"So, he's a hard guy to stop," Hardwick said. "There's a couple of players who can go through him, whether we go head-to-head or we look at Dan Jackson - one of those type of players. "We'll put some work into Gary, no doubt.
"The thing is he still manages to get 30 touches. "I don' think there's a player in the history of the game who has improved every season and his season thus far has been outstanding.
"He has changed the way he has played, he's more attacking now and his possessions are better."
Jackson seemed to have shaken off an ankle injury during a light training session at Punt Rd Oval yesterday, so too ruckman Ivan Maric, out with a groin strain for the past two weeks. And young backman Brandon Ellis, subbed off with concussion last round, joined training.
But there was no sign of rebounding defender Bachar Houli, a late withdrawal with a hamstring ailment last Saturday.
Hardwick dismissed any hoodoo talk loosely based on a 0-2 record against the Gold Coast. "We're probably the only side that hasn't beaten the Gold Coast, but we don't look too much into that to be perfectly honest," he said.
"There's a lot of sides vying for those bottom eight positions (on the ladder) in the run home.
"We're one of those and we've got to make sure we take the opportunities when they present.
Our interstate record this year has been pretty good, we're two wins, one loss and that loss was to Freo by a point.
"We'll travel up late, training up there and get the game over and fly straight back."
Last Modified on 09/08/2013 13:58