Richmond may turn to out-of-form Mabior Chol to provide support to Toby Nankervis in Friday’s AFL preliminary final against Port Adelaide.

Chol was dropped for Tom Lynch for last weekend’s semi-final against St Kilda after a poor game against Brisbane in the opening round of the finals.

But the 23-year-old could make a return at Adelaide Oval with Tigers coach Damien Hardwick admitting he’d prefer to play two ruckmen against the Power’s duo of Scott Lycett and Peter Ladhams.

Chol is the Tigers’ only specialist ruck option to support Nankervis with Ivan Soldo injured and Callum Coleman-Jones sent home in disgrace for breaching AFL COVID protocols.

The Tigers won the 2017 premiership with just one specialist ruck but it appears to be a scenario Hardwick is wary of using on Friday.

“You can get by … we sort of went in a little bit with that setup in the first final with just Marbs and Nank but Marbs played predominantly as a forward,” Hardwick said.

“We probably in hindsight would’ve changed the set up.

“We think we do like the look of the second ruck. It provides us with some sort of backup and allows Nank to play probably less game time and be more dynamic.”

The Tigers other options are to give Nankervis a break and use defenders Noah Balta or David Astbury in the ruck at times, though with Charlie Dixon in the Power forward line, Hardwick would be wary to take away height and strength from his defensive line.

Despite his recent form struggles, Hardwick remains a fan of Chol’s ability.

“He can do some things that other players can’t. We’ve just got to get that consistency level between his very good to his lesser games to a higher standard,” Hardwick said.

The Tigers coach has also been in contact with Coleman-Jones and Sydney Stack, who were sent home after a fight outside a Surfers Paradise nightclub in September.

“We will continue to support those boys. They are Richmond men,” Hardwick said.

“They made a mistake and we will continue to invest in those boys.”