The experience of Ivan Maric up against the youth and exuberance of Ivan Soldo.
This is the dilemma facing Richmond coach Damien Hardwick ahead of Saturday night’s crunch game against AFL premier Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
The cousins are going head to head to fill the spot vacated by suspended ruckman Toby Nankervis, but Hardwick says he will only make his decision after Thursday’s final training session.
Does Hardwick go with the 30-year-old Maric, who has 157 games under his belt, or the untried 20-year-old and 204cm-tall Soldo?
“Both those guys have been in reasonable form and we’ll have a talk about it today. See how they both train and make a decision later,” Hardwick said.
“They are incredibly close and whichever way it goes, they will be supportive of each other.
“We have Ivan’s experience that we like and then we’ve got Soldo’s youth and exuberance that we like also. So we’ll be looking at all those options.”
While the Tigers are disappointed to lose Nankervis for such a crucial clash, Hardwick admits it’s a fine balancing act between encouraging and containing the ruckman’s aggression.
“We prefer he keeps his arms down, obviously. It’s much like probably the conversation Leon Cameron (GWS Giants coach) had with Toby Greene (suspended forward), you take that (aggression) away and they probably lose the player they are,” Hardwick said.
“There was a guy at Hawthorn, Campbell Brown who used to be very similar. You take that emphasis off the player physically and how they play aggressively and they can become a lesser player as a result.
“So we want him (Nankervis) to be more controlled with his aggression, but we want him to continue to push the envelope with his physicality.”
Richmond will make at least two changes, with injury-prone defender Reece Conca out for up to six weeks with a foot injury.
“So that’s two forced changes and we have some guys in really good form, Sam Lloyd was great (in the VFL) at the weekend, Anthony Miles is always solid and Corey Ellis has been in good form also.
“So we’ve got some guys in form and ready to come in,” said Hardwick.
