REECE Conca is tracking well for a return from his ankle injury, with Richmond expecting the Tiger to be back before the end of the home and away season.
The 25-year-old went down in a sickening incident in the club's round 15 win over Sydney, and there were fears his year would be cut short by a fractured ankle.
But Conca, who has suffered a run of bad injury luck throughout his career, was buoyed by the news he had escaped serious injury and merely dislocated the ankle.
Coach Damien Hardwick said Conca has ramped up his rehabilitation program and remains on track for a return to football before the end of the season.
"He's running at the morning so he's moved from the Alter G (running machine). He's running laps [as of] Tuesday, so he's started to progress which is great. We're very confident he'll play some football," Hardwick said on Thursday.
"When it is we're not too sure, but we think it will be before the finals."
The Tigers head into Friday night's clash with St Kilda coming off last week's two-point loss to Greater Western Sydney.
Forwards Sam Lloyd and Tyson Stengle are pressing for selection after strong VFL form, but a swag of changes is unlikely given Hardwick said the Tigers were relatively pleased overall with the showing against the Giants.
"You look at all the indicators that we value and we won all those. It was just one of those games that they made the most of their chances and we didn't," he said.
"Whilst disappointed we walked away with a loss, we were pretty happy with 80 per cent of how we played."
The Tigers sit on top of the ladder, percentage ahead of second-placed West Coast, in what is shaping as an exciting run to the finals for top-four aspirants.
And while the AFL looks intent on introducing sweeping changes to improve the look of the game, Hardwick cautioned the League against going too far, citing the evenness of this year's competition.
"You've got to be careful what you wish for. If you want to see more goals, you're going to see more blowouts. So be very careful about how we structure things up," last year's premiership coach said.
"We value, as coaches, three facets of the game: offence, defence and contest. And if we want to establish one phase more than the others, the better sides are going to get better.
"You've got to be very careful about which way we go. I'm all for the progression of the game and what that looks like, but we've also got a very, very good competition at the moment.
"We're at round 18 and there's a lot of sides vying for top-four and top-eight spots."
