Richmond royalty Tom Lynch, Dustin Martin and captain Toby Nankervis will play in Thursday night’s AFL blockbuster against Carlton at the MCG.
It’s exciting news for Tigers fans who haven’t seen Lynch — their 2022 best-and-fairest winner — since Round 4 last season due to a foot injury.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Richmond stars back for Round 1 blockbuster.
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Martin (calf) and Nankervis (foot) also missed their season-opening loss to Gold Coast last Saturday.
Young forward Rhyan Mansell (ankle) is another potential inclusion for the traditional Round 1 clash, which could attract 90,000 fans.
Richmond confirmed the news with a cheeky tweet on Tuesday, where new coach Adem Yze was sitting with the trio of stars in an amusing copy of the doctored photo of Princess Kate, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
The caption on the Tigers’ tweet read: “Richmond Royalty available for selection this week … *Haters will say it’s Photoshopped*.”
The tweet has since gone semi viral, in part because it was a copy of a Carlton tweet that their arch-rivals had posted the day before.
In the Blues’ tweet, however, they used the original doctored photo of Kate and the children, but they had a TV in the background where you could clearly see it was tuned to a Carlton game.
The Blues also used the line, “Haters will say it’s Photoshopped.”
While most fans were tickled by the amusing byplay, one noted under Richmond’s version: “Thought I’d seen similar. Get your own material.”
Earlier on Tuesday morning, vice-captain Jayden Short said Lynch, Martin and Nankervis had all “looked pretty good” at training.
“I’m hoping all three get up and also Rhyan Mansell, he had an awesome pre-season,” Short said.
“I’m always pumping to get blokes back from rehab and I’m hoping Lynchy gets himself back, but I don’t want to put the pressure on him — he’s been a long time out of the game.”
Lynch’s absence cruelled Richmond last season and he will give their attack a major boost.
“When he did it, he told us he was only going to miss a week,” Short said of Lynch’s injury.
“To see the way he showed up to the club, every single day in rehab, it’s been amazing and his attitude towards his rehab has been sensational.
“If he does get himself up it’s going to be amazing, not just for us, but for him as well.”
Richmond will only have a five-day break, but Short said they prefer the short turnaround given their poor start against the Suns.
Gold Coast exposed the Tigers’ contested work in the first half last Saturday and Yze focused on that in their post-game review.
“That’s just what footy is … you have to get yourself up and it’s been a little bit about recovery this week,” Short said.
“Obviously our contest work to start the game, for the first two quarters, was pretty down.
“We reviewed that pretty much the next day and had some pretty honest conversations around that.
“We can expect a lot better this week — the boys really want to get to work and they are embarrassed about how we started.
“It’s certainly something we want to rectify … the boys are rapt that we only have five days to get ourselves back out there.”
During Richmond’s 2017-20 premiership era, they owned Carlton in their Round 1 MCG clashes.
But now the Blues are the dominant team after making last year’s preliminary final and starting the season with a rousing comeback win over the Brisbane Lions.
“They’re an amazing team and they’re definitely going to bring the pressure,” Short said.
“They’re going to bring the heat and we have to match it with them.”
– With Cameron Noakes