Melbourne co-captain Nathan Jones expects emotional Richmond in Round 9 clash, following death of Tiger great Tom Hafey

MELBOURNE co-captain Nathan Jones expects an emotion-charged Richmond side playing in memory of Tiger legend Tom Hafey on Saturday afternoon.

MELBOURNE co-captain Nathan Jones expects an emotion-charged Richmond side playing in memory of Tiger legend Tom Hafey on Saturday afternoon.

Drawing on his experience following the death of Demon great Jim Stynes in 2012, Jones said the Tigers would need to focus on balancing their emotions.

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“Obviously with Jimmy passing away it was a pretty emotional week for the footy club and I guess the tough task is to balance that and not let it absorb too much of the playing group, so they can still perform on the weekend,” Jones said this morning.

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“That’s one of the hardest things to do, it’s an individual thing and how the death of someone affects the individual. It’s almost out of the control of the footy club.

Jay Kennedy-Harris dragged Melbourne to victory in the NAB Challenge with three goals in the final term.

“It will be a great opportunity this weekend to honour him (Hafey) and obviously Richmond will be paying pretty significant tribute and it will be a pretty exciting game, I’m sure they will be pumped up and wanting to perform.”

Richmond has won the last four premiership season encounters between the two clubs, however the Demons will take confidence from their pre-season NAB Challenge win and Jones hinted the Tigers were vulnerable.

“We are well aware that they are probably not on top of their game, but they have some really key players. Obviously their forward line is set up and they are pretty strong through the midfield as well and they’ve got some really good ball users off half-back,” he said.

“We are going to have to come with our best game and that really competitive edge and that real tackling mentality that we’ve tried to bring in the first six or eight rounds.”

A contentious free-kick paid against Demon defender Lynden Dunn was the major talking point from the club’s 16-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, with coach Paul Ross admitting he was unsure why the decision was paid.

Jones refused to blame the loss on a single free kick, however he conceded players were confused by “grey area” with particular rules causing players to enter contests with “trepidation”.

“They pay what they see. My opinion is probably similar to Roosy, I didn’t think the free kick was there, but the umpires made the call on the night and that’s what they saw …”

“I don’t think that influenced the result, there was other opportunities in the first three quarters where we cost ourselves the game …”

Jones said Dean Terlich (concussion) and James Frawley (hamstring) were progressing well but would need to get through training to be selected.

Originally published as Melbourne co-captain Nathan Jones expects emotional Richmond in Round 9 clash, following death of Tiger great Tom Hafey