Richmond coach Adem Yze is under no illusions as to the challenges confronting his charges this weekend, while deeming criticisms of his club's plight as justified.
The Tigers have been lambasted for another uncompetitive outing last time out, after Hawthorn had their way with Yze's men on the MCG's wide expanses.
With troops returning, headlined by skipper Jack Ross' inclusion, the third-year coach put it to his side to respond, with the daunting prospect of a Marcus Bontempelli-led Bulldogs outfit ahead of them.
"We reviewed that (Hawthorn) game really honestly," Yze said.
"We weren't happy with our first-half performance. Hawthorn are obviously a really strong team in really good form, so they were too good for us in the first half. We rectified that a little bit in the second half. We had a really good session yesterday, and our boys are really fired up to put on a stronger performance this weekend."
The pathetic nature of Richmond's first half against the Hawks has the jungle drums beating ever louder for Yze's termination as the coach of the hampered Victorian powerhouse.
The criticisms of his tenure come as no surprise to the man whose record in the role sits at a woeful 10-55.
"Criticism, we're going to cop no matter what," he said.
"Whether you are on the bottom of the ladder or the bottom four, you're going to cop that anyway. There's obviously reasons behind that and the middle part of the year we've battled with some availability (issues).
"You don't have to be Einstein to work out the reasons or some of the reasons behind that, but at the same time, we've got a responsibility each week. We've got 20-odd players going out there this weekend that need to go and rectify the performance that we put on last weekend."
Dogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli was at his scintillating best in helming his side to a crucial victory over the Suns last weekend, and with Bontempelli's side in dire need of a percentage boost in their pursuit of September, stopping the game's very best is front of mind for Yze. At the same time, he is excited by the growth his "young bucks" will experience by way of rubbing shoulder with Whitten Oval's finest.
"He is one of the best players in the comp," Yze said.
"Our midfield crew will have a plan going into it. There's contingencies around that, whether he goes forward and things like that, but you always want to make sure that he doesn't have an influence on the result.
"We've got a few young bucks that'll be nice to lean against him. Sam Cumming will get that opportunity - we want to keep giving our young midfielders some opportunity. So Taj Hotton will go through there. Sam Grlj will get an opportunity to go through there. And then Sammy (Lalor) will start to raise that opportunity to go through the midfield now that he's not as managed with his minutes.
"It'd be nice to see and to be fair, we need him to grow on an AFL field and learn off the best. "Bont" is one of the best, and we'll give him that opportunity."
Fielding such a young side every week, with very little to play for at this stage of the season, the question of morale was put to the former Demon.
"It's all of our roles to make sure the morale's high," he said.
"Game day's still the best day of the week, irrelevant of where you sit on the ladder. We expect to go out there and play with freedom and make sure we're still enjoying getting out there and playing."
One such reason for morale is the quartet of returning players.
"We've got four players that are coming back in that are really hungry, like "Rossy's" (Jack Ross) missed the last couple of weeks. He's the leader of our footy club. He'll be bouncing around. He'll be pretty hungry and his morale will be high," Yze said.
"Tyler Sonsie on the other hand, plays some VFL footy and just broke the door down and needs an opportunity, so he'll be pretty hungry. Luke Trainor comes back into the team, back off concussion, earns his spot, he gets an opportunity. And young Zane Puecker is a young guy whose morale's going to be high because he's playing his second game of AFL footy.
"There's a responsibility for each player to get out there and play with that morale, that spirit, that energy, every week, irrelevant of where we sit on the ladder."
