Richmond coach Adem Yze believes he has a side that can beat West Coast as the winless Tigers' bid for a first victory gets more and more desperate.
Despite the poor start and an injury toll growing by the day, Yze said his young side were eager to embrace the opportunity to test themselves against an Eagles side with a comparable list profile.
West Coast may enter the battle of the two youngest and two least-experienced lists in the league as favourites against the 0-7 Tigers, but Richmond have claimed honours in six of their last even bouts.
While he played down their recent record against West Coast, Yze said his side were excited by the opportunity to test themselves against the Eagles and was confident they would embrace the challenge with gusto.
"I'm more confident from the way we played last week, rather than the last seven times," he said.
"The boys like playing here, it's a great venue, it's going to be good conditions. It'll be two young teams, two highly talented teams going at it, and we can't wait to get out there and perform and show what we've got.
"They're going through the same sort of rebuild or regeneration (as Richmond) from their last Premiership as well.
"With youth, it can obviously create some bumps along the road. They've had a couple of them, but they've been really impressive in a couple of their wins and in a couple of their competitive performances, similar to us last year."
The Eagles' favoritism has been aided by Tigers star Tim Taranto not travelling due to lingering concussion symptoms, while young gun Sam Lalor suffered an Achilles injury at training this week and rising defender Josh Gibcus was ruled out for the season with an ACL sprain.
"It's not only frustrating for us, but when you see one of your teammates get injured at any stage of the year, let alone a number one pick — and we know the talent of Sammy — there would be some flat players, and obviously close teammates that will be a little bit flat for him," Yze said of Lalor's injury blow.
But Yze said those who had travelled were determined to give a good account of themselves.
"We sent 23 fit players on the plane and they're coming over here on a mission: to perform really well and hopefully get a win," he said.
"We're going through a fair bit at the moment off-field obviously with availability, but as it gets close to the weekend, we've got 23 fit players that are ready to go and perform and do our jumper and our fans proud.
"Through all of this, there is always a silver lining with players getting an opportunity, and you'll see that again with Patty Retschko getting another game, Tommy Burton came in last week for his first game, and Sam Cumming will get some midfield exposure.
"While we're dealing with what we're dealing with through availability, there's always opportunity."
