Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has urged Tigers supporters to respect Tom Stewart, saying the Tigers maintain no grudges in opposition to the champion Geelong defender.
Geelong and Richmond face-off for the primary time since Stewart was banned for a month after knocking out star Tigers midfielder Dion Prestia with a excessive bump in spherical 15 final yr.
Stewart mentioned this week he was anticipating “a lot of noise” on the MCG when the Cats and Tigers conflict on Friday evening.
But Prestia, who will play his 2 hundredth AFL sport in spherical 9, mentioned in an interview on Wednesday he would like if the Tigers supporters did not boo Stewart.
Fan behaviour has been thrust into the highlight this week after Lance Franklin was bizarrely jeered by Collingwood supporters each time he touched the ball final Sunday, resulting in the Magpies, Swans and AFL issuing apologies to the Sydney legend.
Hardwick mentioned Richmond wouldn’t be utilizing final yr’s incident between Stewart and Prestia as motivation for the match.
“Fans are fans, 80 per cent of the people would cheer and be excited,” he mentioned at Punt Rd on Thursday.
“Tom Stewart is an incredible player, so all I’ll say is give him the respect he deserves.
“From our perspective what occurred previously is previously and we transfer on.
“We’re happy to just hopefully give them a fierce contest and hopefully walk away with a win.
“The sport is combative in nature, we perceive that accidents will occur prefer it did final yr however we do not maintain any grudges, we simply get on with it and play the sport.”
Hardwick’s plea came as Richmond announced a one-year contract extension for co-captain Dylan Grimes.
“He’s been one of many nice Richmond success tales to return from a rookie choose (in 2010) by way of to an All-Australian Australian captain, a three-time premiership participant and a long-time servant of this footy membership so I could not be prouder of him,” Hardwick mentioned of Grimes.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
