DAMIEN Hardwick has reaffirmed Ty Vickery's position in Richmond's best 22 and will consider pairing the forward with returning tall Ben Griffiths next week against North Melbourne.
Vickery played his first game of the season – and since round 18 last year – on Saturday against Geelong, with Griffiths out with a calf injury.
Despite Vickery only kicking 1.1 in the Tigers' nine-point loss, coach Damien Hardwick praised the forward’s competitiveness and aggression.
With Griffiths a chance to play next Saturday against the Kangaroos, Hardwick may consider using the two of them in the same set up – alongside Jack Riewoldt - after trialling such a setup seven times last year, mainly when Ivan Maric was out injured.
Click here for Damien Hardwick's full press conference
"I'd like to [play them together]. I think Ty gives us a different look. 'Griffo' is more mobile and Ty we prefer to be that ‘stay at home [forward]’, he's agile at ground level also," Hardwick said after Saturday's loss.
"Ty looked really good on the lead today, he's aggressive, he's assertive and when he's playing confident footy that's when we see the best of Ty Vickery, and I think today was a good step forward.
"He can get better again though. He's a really important player to us.
"I keep telling him and I know he realises how important he is to us - maybe it's too much pressure on him. He's best 22."
The Tigers were messy in front of goal, especially in the first quarter when they kicked just five behinds from 10 inside-50s, which was three more than the Cats had.
Hardwick rued the inaccuracy and wastefulness early on, which was also a feature of last week's loss to Melbourne.
Vickery had to overcome a simple dropped mark in the first quarter and a missed set shot early in the second to bring a level of competitiveness that pleased his coach.
"He kicked one, he missed two and dropped a mark," Hardwick said.
"I thought he competed pretty well overall."
Giving up three goals from direct centre clearances in the last quarter, and not capitalising on the momentum the Tigers’ generated in the second quarter were other issues that irked Hardwick.
"Zero [goals] five [behinds], unfortunately you kick that and you don't actually put the opposition on the back foot at any stage.
"It's something we've been working on but we've just got to make sure we continue to get better in that area because you never get your nose in front.
"Overall, I thought their attitude and intensity was pretty good but it's the consistency we're looking for. One week doesn't settle it."
The Tigers could be bolstered by Brett Deledio next week, who said in a pre-match radio interview on ABC Radio he was hopeful of returning from a calf injury.
Hardwick wouldn’t apologise for the Tigers playing an attacking style that could result in turnovers.
"It's the way we're going to play. We're going to be attacking, we're going to be bold and unfortunately we're going to turn the ball over in certain situations also," he said.
"We've just got to make sure we continue to be clean inside 50. We had a number of opportunities when we had players out and for whatever reason we just botched them.
"We've been training it, we'll continue to train it and eventually it will click."
