RICHMOND has endured a nightmare injury run across the first four months of the season, but Tom Lynch is on track to return for next Saturday night's clash against Carlton, while Sam Lalor is still at least a fortnight away. 

Adem Yze got a response from his troops after the disappointing performance against North Melbourne last Sunday, but it wasn't enough to trouble Collingwood for long enough at the MCG on Saturday.   

MAGPIES v TIGERS Full match coverage and stats

The Tigers registered 51 inside 50s against the Magpies, but without veteran star Lynch, plus young key forward trio Jonty Faull, Harry Armstrong or Tom Sims, Richmond struggled to impact the scoreboard again, only converting 11 goals.

"Lynchy had a terrific session today, so I think he's seeing the surgeon early this week to make sure he ticks all the boxes so that there's no risk with that," Yze told reporters after the 34-point loss to the Pies. 

"But physically, apart from his throat, he's fine. So if he gets the approval from the surgeon he will be available. 

"Harry might play managed minutes at VFL which is really important for our footy club. So for him to get back out there playing some minutes and then obviously after that be available for AFL. Our front end will look a lot different when those two are available. 

"I think Sam is still a couple of weeks away. He'll start to integrate into training, but he's probably still another week or two away."

Taj Hotton sent a scare through the Richmond camp when he copped a knock and came off the ground, but the 2024 first-round pick returned and finished with 17 disposals and seven tackles in his second game of the season after recovering from a stress reaction in his hip.

"He's fine. He copped a knee on knee, a bit of a corkie just above his knee. So for him to push through that was great," Yze said.

Yze sat in the exact same seat after last Sunday's loss to the Roos and expressed his frustration at the performance. Six days later, he was happy with the response early and the fight but said the second quarter cost them, as did the turnover game where Collingwood registered 13.13.

"We just went through that. We responded in the right way. Our first quarter was really strong; we just didn't capitalise on our entries. And then we lost our way in the second quarter. It's been a bit of a theme against the more experienced teams – all the teams closer to the top of the ladder where we just fall away after one quarter – so they beat us by 30-odd points in that quarter, six goals to one, and that ends up being the margin for the game.

"Our turnovers by the end of the game they kicked 91 points from turnover, but we can't take away the flair; we want to play with speed, and we played the right way today with the ball. It was just some skill execution and some decisions from our back end that we probably just gift them some goals."

Collingwood moved back into the wildcard spots amid a logjam of teams in the middle section of the ladder, following a second consecutive win. 

Magpies coach Craig McRae said it is crucial to build momentum in the middle of winter and believes his side can get rolling and remain in contention in 2026. 

"We just feel like we've got a bit of momentum building. It's a nice time of the year to sort of get some things moving, and parts of our game I think are really starting to take shape in terms of things we're doing really well," McRae said.

"There's never an easy game in our eyes, but we get an opportunity to go out here today and I think we improved. It's only the second time this year we've hit the ton and as the game went on, it looked OK.

"We've got a big challenge next week in Gold Coast. It doesn't take much to get momentum in this game and all of a sudden you start to get the thing moving in the right direction. This is a really tight competition. You win three, four, five games in a row and you don't have to worry about the ladder position.

"We're very process driven. We've always been that, but we're very much aware that this is an important part of the year."

Vice-captain Brayden Maynard is pushing to be on the flight to Queensland, banking another important session on Saturday morning after missing the past two games since dislocating his shoulder against Melbourne on King's Birthday.

"He's touch and go," McRae said.

"He did a really good session indoors yesterday and a lot more one-on-one, combative stuff that he got through that he needed to get through and he did and got some confidence in himself. So that'll be a managed watch throughout the week, but it'll be interesting to see if he comes up."