Richmond to regain Kane Lambert for first final, Jacob Townsend ruled out for season

RICHMOND expects All Australian candidate Kane Lambert to be fully fit for Thursday week’s qualifying final but has lost premiership player Jacob Townsend for the season.

RICHMOND expects All Australian candidate Kane Lambert to be fully fit for Thursday week’s qualifying final but has lost premiership player Jacob Townsend for the season.

Townsend has had surgery on a broken ankle suffered in the VFL and the out-of-contract forward is out for an injury normally needing a 10-week recovery.

Richmond takes on Williamstown in a Saturday night VFL final, the Tigers far from thrilled they now only have a five-day turnaround until their Thursday qualifying final against Hawthorn.

FINALS MATRIX: WHO PLAYS WHO, WHERE AND WHEN?

SUPERCOACH WRAP: BEST AND WORST PICKS OF 2018

The decision from the AFL not only means thousands of country members will be unable to get to the game, it shortens the lead-in from the VFL game to the first AFL final.

Dan Butler will play in that game after his own ankle surgery to fix a problem that had seen him missing since Round 16.

Tigers football boss Neil Balme said Butler would play “reasonable minutes” in that game as he tries to make an immediate push for a senior recall.

Lambert had surgery for a similar syndesmosis injury after Round 21 and while that operation mostly has players out for some time his problem was at the minor end of the scale.

He has already started running strongly so the Tigers will be at full strength again for their first final just like last year.

Balme said yesterday the Tigers expected Lambert to play in the clash with Hawthorn.

“He won’t play this week. But he will be training and we are expecting him to play the week after next,’’ he said.

“Butler will play a reasonable amount of game time this Saturday night but there are no other serious injuries out of Friday night.”

Dan Butler is set to play in the VFL in a bid to push his case for a senior return. Picture: Alex Coppel

The Tigers had expected to hand their players Monday to Wednesday off in anticipation of a Friday night final but will now recall them on Wednesday.

They will train on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, with a normal training load rather than any heavy match simulation session.

The Tigers’ 22 from last year’s Grand Final has been bolstered by Jack Higgins, Reece Conca and defensive revelation Jayden Short.

Butler would need to make a strong claim for an immediate recall so might return deeper into the finals series for the Tigers.

Lambert’s expected return means a Tiger will need to make way for him but it is not immediately apparent who that player would be.

Conca was solid with 18 possessions, Jack Graham was superb with three goals and 20 possessions and Kamdyn McIntosh kicked a goal among his 17 possessions.

Richmond have won five of the past eight games against a Hawthorn side that has a winning record against most sides in recent years.

Watch the finals of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. SIGN UP NOW >

Originally published as Richmond to regain Kane Lambert for first final, Jacob Townsend ruled out for season