Richmond are likely to lose promising youngster Reece Conca for their opening round AFL blockbuster against Carlton, over a Friday night off-the-ball incident.
The 19-year-old flattened North Melbourne’s Leigh Adams in the pre-season opener at Etihad Stadium.
Behind-the-goal television footage showed Conca pause in front of a running Adams and move his body to block the path of the seemingly unsuspecting Kangaroo.
The collision left Adams lying on the ground for several minutes, before he was subbed out of the pre-season match at Etihad Stadium.
North coach Brad Scott later said Adams was dazed.
The incident is likely to be classed as intentional and is certain to be graded as high contact, regardless of whether Adams’ head made contact with Conca or the ground.
The greatest area of uncertainty is the degree of impact.
With a medium impact grading, a rough conduct charge would be worth a four-match ban, which could be reduced to three games with an early guilty plea.
With Conca expected to be able to serve two of those matches in the remainder of the pre-season competition, that would wipe him out for the home and away season-opener.
The Tigers are already certain to be missing lively small forward Jake King for that match, because of a rough conduct suspension carried over from last season.
King was one of Richmond’s best in Friday night’s matches – a last-gasp loss to the Kangaroos and comeback win over Hawthorn.
Coach Damien Hardwick also rated Conca’s performance as one of the biggest positives from the night.
“I thought Reece Conca showed a fair bit, he took another step forward,” Hardwick said of the second-year Tiger.
The Richmond coach was also heartened by the form of ex-Adelaide ruckman Ivan Maric and ex-Melbourne small forward Addam Maric, as well as fellow recruits Steven Morris and Brandon Ellis and second-year players Jake Batchelor and Brad Helbig.
“The depth of our list is certainly improving,” Hardwick said.
He was also pleased by his team’s defensive pressure, which he said was progressing in “baby steps”.
