Hardwick slams Eagles' tribunal tactics

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has slammed the 'character assassination' of North Melbourne forward Lindsay Thomas from West Coast and Luke Shuey's player advocate at the AFL tribunal.

Shuey was hit with a two-match suspension by the AFL's match review panel for striking Thomas in the groin during the Eagles' two-point win in Hobart on Sunday.

The decision was unsuccessfully challenged at the tribunal with Shuey's representative David Grace claiming that Thomas had feigned the injury before showing footage of another incident in the match where he believed that the Kangaroos player had made the most of contact from an opponent.

North Melbourne legend Glenn Archer claimed that the Eagles had broken an unwritten players code by accusing Thomas of staging on Thursday and Hardwick also weighed into the debate, revealing that he was not happy with the attempted defence from the Eagles.

"I'm a little bit disappointed to be honest," Hardwick told reporters at Melbourne Airport on Thursday.

"At the end of the day, you do the crime, you get the time. To try and bring into question Lindsay Thomas...I didn't like it and it's not something our club will be a part of.

"It's the AFL tribunal's job to judge all those factors. It's not for the club to bring in character assassination. I didn't like it."

The Tigers return to Cazaly's Stadium in Cairns – as part of a three-year arrangement to play one home game at the venue each season – this weekend to face Gold Coast on Saturday.

The Suns have won just three of their 36 matches as an AFL side but one came in the corresponding match last season and Hardwick is adamant that the result will not be repeated, sending his players up earlier to get accustomed to the far north Queensland conditions.

"We didn't play particularly well that day (last year) but importantly we are going to go up there early this year," he said.

"The windy conditions was probably the thing that caught us out most. We had probably a six or seven-goal wind going down one end of the ground and it was just a matter of taking your chances...we'll train over the course of the next two days and make sure we get a gauge of the conditions."

Richmond defender Kelvin Moore – who has not played a match since Round 22 2010 after a string of serious hip injuries – is likely to play if he gets through training unscathed.

And Hardwick says the return of Moore would be a huge boost for Richmond heading into the business end of the season, especially after the season-ending hamstring injury suffered by fellow backman Dylan Grimes.

"It's a fantastic story. When the surgeon saw his hips, he likened it to a car crash accident. It was doubtful whether he'd actually play footy again. We are really pleased to have him back in the squad."

"He's such an enormous character of our footy club and one the guys love playing with. If he can get through training, he is every chance of playing."

Hardwick confirmed that Dustin Martin – given a two-week club suspension for taking unprescribed sleeping pills and missing a training session – would travel with the team and make a number of promotional appearances, while he also said it was 'devastating' to have midfielder Nathan Foley ruled out for the year after he partially ruptured his Achilles tendon at training in mid-week.