RUINING Richmond’s slim finals hopes is “absolutely” part of the motivation for Saturday’s clash at the MCG, according to Fremantle coach Mark Harvey.

Richmond won by 64 points at Subiaco Oval the last time the sides met, which also provides plenty of motivation for Fremantle to repay the favour.

And Harvey said his side was excited at the prospect of shaping the top eight in the
final two rounds of 2008. “Richmond and Collingwood are big sides and big challenges for our group,” he said.

“I like to see our guys evolve with a lack of personnel and beat sides that are playing off for finals, and that is how I see it.

“The joy you get out of it is to see the evolvement of your playing group – that’s what you get out of it. I get the thrill out of winning particularly with the group and where it’s at.”

Fremantle was forced to train on the Princes Park cricket ground on Friday morning because the main oval was waterlogged.

Captain Matthew Pavlich completed the session without incident and Harvey declared him a certain starter for Saturday’s match. Pavlich had failed to train earlier in the week but Harvey said his absence from the track was merely a management issue.

“He has played the majority of the year and a guy with his frame sometimes needs a rest; that’s all it was really,” Harvey said.

Harvey said the side had learned lessons from the round-four loss to Richmond but had not dwelled on the severity of the defeat.

“It’s a different ground, different circumstances, different personnel – yeh, you can use it in many ways but you don’t want to really go too far back and knock the confidence out of you,” Harvey said.

“[In round four] Richmond brought over a running side suitable for Subiaco [Oval] and we found ourselves making too many errors whenever we looked threatening.”

He also said the club was planning to counter Matthew Richardson more successfully than they did in round four when the ageing star was superb alternating between wing and half forward.

 “A lot of sides can learn from Matthew and the way he coordinates it. Obviously Terry (Wallace) is calling the shots but he is the one that has to take it out [on the ground],” Harvey said.

“He does it all at the right time and we have gone back and had a look at that a traced it.”

Harvey said he had one or two players in mind to play on Richardson but insisted his main focus would be on the way his side went about their business.

The side was watched by an exuberant group of Under 12s who had travelled across from Dalkeith in WA for the weekend.