THE Power will face a near full-strength Richmond side on Saturday in Albury.
While the Tigers have omitted skipper Trent Cotchin and taken injured midfielder Nathan Foley out of its squad, Brett Deledio, Ivan Maric, Dustin Martin, Jack Riewoldt and Alex Rance have all been brought into the side.
richmondfc.com.au confirmed those inclusions would be in the yellow-and-black's final team for Saturday, with Damien Hardwick seeking to play a stronger side than the one that defeated the Western Bulldogs by 22 points at the end of February.
“Our intention always was to have a stronger NAB 2 team,” Hardwick said.
“It was always the way we were going to go . . . give the younger players an opportunity that NAB 1 game because it was five weeks out from Round 1.
“Now we’re about three weeks away. So the majority of our senior squad will be out playing this week.”
Richmond's side comes in stark contrast to Port Adelaide's, which will miss the likes of first choice players Travis Boak, Brad Ebert, Hamish Hartlett, Jay Schulz, Justin Westhoff, Alipate Carlile and AFLCA Champion Player winner Robbie Gray.
Several debutants will play for the Power, including Sam Russell, Albury boy Dougal Howard, Jesse Palmer and Johann Wagner.
Richmond NAB Challenge 29-man squad v Port Adelaide
2. Dylan Grimes
3. Brett Deledio
4. Dustin Martin
5. Brandon Ellis
6. Shaun Grigg
8. Jack Riewoldt
10. Shane Edwards
11. Jake Batchelor
13. Ricky Petterd
14. Bachar Houli
16. Shaun Hampson
18. Alex Rance
20. Ivan Maric
22. Nathan Gordon
25. Troy Chaplin
26. Anthony Miles
27. Sam Lloyd
28. Taylor Hunt
29. Ty Vickery
30. Reece Conca
31. Nick Vlastuin
33. Kamdyn McIntosh
34. Liam McBean
35. Ben Lennon
36. Matt McDonough
38. Steve Morris
43. Todd Elton
44. Matt Arnot
48. Kane Lambert
