Richmond’s AFL premiership defence will start without Bachar Houli and Dion Prestia, who have been ruled out of their opening-round clash with Carlton.

Houli (calf) and Prestia (hamstring) have lost their race against time to prove their fitness for the MCG match on Thursday night, with Jayden Short and Shai Bolton likely to come in for the grand final pair.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said defender Houli was close but felt the frantic pace of a round one match might cause further damage.

He expected both to be available to face for their grand final rematch against Adelaide in round two.

“Bachar was close and we could have rolled the dice and played him but round one games are so quick and fast and his recovery would then been hindered and he wouldn’t have got enough training in,” Hardwick said on Wednesday.

“We thought we’d go the conservative approach and train him up for a couple of weeks.

“Round two he’s an obvious inclusion from this point and Dion is probably the same for next week.

“They’re both really important players for us that we weren’t prepared to risk in a round one encounter.”

Their omission means there’s at least four changes to Richmond premiership-winning line-up with Daniel Rioli still battling a foot injury and Nathan Broad suspended.