He's playing..... yeehaaa.....
RICHMOND is set to be boosted by the return of star key forward Tom Lynch for Dustin Martin's 300th game against Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.
The 31-year-old hasn't played since suffering a hamstring tendon injury late in the win over Sydney in round three, three games into his return from a long-term foot injury.
After missing the last 10 weeks, including last Thursday night's win over Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, Lynch has completed his rehabilitation program and will face the Hawks if he completes training on Thursday.
Richmond coach Adem Yze said the All-Australian forward hasn't raced back to play in the milestone game and was essentially ready to return for last week's trip to South Australia.
"He is going to be out there today and if he gets through today, he is going to play," Yze told reporters on Thursday morning.
"He had a great block of work. He was putting his hand up to play last week. We held that back, so he is ready to go. He'll do a big session today. If he trains fully, he will play.
"He has pushed to play because he is ready. As I said, he was ready last week as well. We wouldn't push him any earlier.
"We've got a bye coming up after this game, so if there was any risk around playing Tom Lynch, we wouldn't do that. We held him an extra week, another week of training and he'll play if he gets through today."
RICHMOND is set to be boosted by the return of star key forward Tom Lynch for Dustin Martin's 300th game against Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.
The 31-year-old hasn't played since suffering a hamstring tendon injury late in the win over Sydney in round three, three games into his return from a long-term foot injury.
After missing the last 10 weeks, including last Thursday night's win over Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, Lynch has completed his rehabilitation program and will face the Hawks if he completes training on Thursday.
Richmond coach Adem Yze said the All-Australian forward hasn't raced back to play in the milestone game and was essentially ready to return for last week's trip to South Australia.
"He is going to be out there today and if he gets through today, he is going to play," Yze told reporters on Thursday morning.
"He had a great block of work. He was putting his hand up to play last week. We held that back, so he is ready to go. He'll do a big session today. If he trains fully, he will play.
"He has pushed to play because he is ready. As I said, he was ready last week as well. We wouldn't push him any earlier.
"We've got a bye coming up after this game, so if there was any risk around playing Tom Lynch, we wouldn't do that. We held him an extra week, another week of training and he'll play if he gets through today."
