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Sport
Anna Harrington

Tigers to regain key trio for Bulldogs AFL clash

Dustin Martin will be back as the Tigers aim to get back to winning ways against the Bulldogs. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Richmond will welcome back Dustin Martin, Jacob Hopper and Jayden Short against the Western Bulldogs as they look to kickstart their AFL campaign.

Martin (hamstring/general soreness), Short (calf) and Hopper (knee) all missed Friday night's 8.15 (63) to 7.7 (49) loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

The Tigers lacked power and explosiveness, being well beaten around the contest by the Magpies, and will relish the experienced trio providing some extra spark.

"I think Hopper, Dustin and Short will all play next week," coach Damien Hardwick told reporters.

Key defender Robbie Tarrant will return to action in the VFL on Saturday.

Tarrant dealt with a hip issue through pre-season and is yet to play this season.

"He'll play a half tomorrow, which will be good," Hardwick said.

"He's had a bit of an indifferent pre-season but he's an experienced campaigner."

The Tigers are 1-1-1 after the opening three rounds, drawing with Carlton, beating Adelaide and losing to Collingwood.

Hardwick, who coached Richmond for the 300th time on Friday night, was philosophical on where they were at.

"It's a little bit like every side - every team's in audit for the first four weeks," he said.

"You've just got to judge where you're at.

"Are we playing well enough at the moment? We're going okay but we can certainly get a lot better in some areas.

"So there's some sides that are going well and then there's some sides that aren't going so well.

"It's pretty early to judge sides on where we're at at the moment

"I know we're pretty quick to jump on that as an industry but the reality is you've just got to let the game settle a bit and figure out what happens from here."

The Tigers will be back at the MCG next Saturday to face the Bulldogs, who are 1-3 after beating Brisbane on Thursday night.

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