Tigers get chance to sink the boot into battling Blues

Richmond coach Adem Yze won't let his charges focus on how under-fire Carlton respond to a week in the headlines as the Tigers seek a round-one upset for the second straight season.

The Blues' opening-round capitulation to Sydney, headlined by a horror third quarter, put Carlton and coach Michael Voss immediately under the gun.

The leaking of comments from retired former captain Sam Docherty, in which he labelled the Blues a "f*,**ing shitshow" in a rant about their game style after the Swans defeat, only added to the pressure.

The 32-year-old's assessment was sent in a private voice message to former teammate and content creator Daniel Gorringe, who aired it on social media without Docherty's knowledge.

Richmond, who will be without defender Nick Vlastuin, are ready for the beleaguered Blues to try to mount a response in Thursday night's clash at the MCG.

"When you think about the psychology of the game, you're constantly reminding your players that you can't get drawn into reading too much about that," Yze said.

"If a team's under pressure, you know they're going to be coming out firing anyway, but they're going to come out firing no matter what, because they've just lost the game.

"We've got to worry about the way we start the game and the way we play.

"There'll be obviously some noise around them, but there's noise around them because they've played a game and we haven't.

"We reviewed the Melbourne (pre-season) game really clearly. We understood we weren't good enough in the first quarter, so we'll be going out to rectify those things in our game rather than worry about who we're playing."

Asked if Richmond would draw on last year's magnificent comeback win, Yze said: "Not really.

"It was an amazing game, but we were 41 points down.

"We've got to be really mindful that we didn't start the game the right way and ... we probably shouldn't have won it based on numbers.

"So there's some excitement around it. We understand that when if we do play our best footy we're a show, so we'll be thinking about the process, and not the result of last year."

Richmond won't risk Vlastuin, who ran out of time to prove his fitness after a limited pre-season, but Yze was confident the star defender would be ready for round two.

"He just hasn't done enough. He's had his ankle and he had a bit of a grumbly back," he said.

Key defender Noah Balta is fit and ready after off-field issues interrupted his 2025, while prized No.8 draft pick Sam Grlj will debut off half-back.

"His will to win is next level," Yze said of 18-year-old Grlj.

"He's got some high talent and high speed when he's on offence.

"But at the same time he's fight to the death, and the way that he defends is the reason he's in the team."

Carlton will be without running defender Adam Saad (hamstring).