"He is an incredible talent. He is a guy we are prepared to invest in. We think he is going to be a long term player for us."

The Tigers will also include skipper Trent Cotchin for his first match since round five when he injured his hamstring, while defender David Astbury will miss another couple of games after having a minor setback that has delayed his recovery from a knee injury.

Hardwick admitted the compressed fixture would probably stop Cotchin from taking part in every game Richmond plays in the next three weeks, despite his return on Wednesday night. He said the captain's history of hamstring injuries in recent seasons would see the club take a cautious approach.

"We will assess as we go along but we want to be a little bit open minded but also very cautious of the importance of Trent as a player to us," Hardwick said.

Tigers defender Bachar Houli will leave Melbourne on Thursday to fly to the quarantine hub on the Gold Coast before joining teammates two weeks after that. A couple of his younger teammates will join him, having served as training partners to Houli and Shane Edwards while they remained in Melbourne.

Hardwick defended out of form talls Jack Riewoldt and Tom Lynch, saying part of the reason for their dip in form was ball movement. But he said the pair would be the first to say they could improve some areas of their game, too.

He said Richmond had shown them footage of when they were at their best to build their confidence leading into the game against the Bulldogs.

"They have got a really good understanding of what makes them play some good football so we're expecting as better result from those two boys and our forward-half execution this week," Hardwick said.

"You have got to remind players how good a player they are ... confidence within, not only to AFL players but people in general is so paramount to their positive psychology.

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"It's just reminding those players what they look like at their very best and sometimes doubt creeps in and they question themselves."

Meanwhile Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said Wednesday night's clash would be a telling indicator of where both teams sat in the AFL's pecking order

"[Richmond are] a lot like us, they're trying to find their position in the competition – [passing] the half-way mark now and we go over the equator now," Beveridge said.

"It's the ninth game with eight to go and the fact that we only play everyone once means that in the context of the season, you're not quite sure where you sit and there's a fair logjam for positions in the higher end of the ladder.

"So [Richmond are] like us, I think we're just trying to work out where we sit, who we are, who we can beat, where we belong and ultimately, whether we're a chance to make it at the end and there's still a lot of uncertainty attached to that, I think for both teams."