Guy McKenna is expecting Richmond to field their strongest available 22-man team for this weekend’s North Queensland clash in Cairns, as the Tigers look to avoid the embarrassment of a third consecutive defeat against the Gold Coast SUNS.

“In the past they’ve had other things to deal with like potential finals campaigns and have decided to rest players given we were in our first and second year of the competition,” McKenna told goldcoastfc.com.au.

“I don’t think they’ll be doing that this year around.”

But despite the Gold Coasters having achieved significant success over Damien Hardwick’s men in the North Queensland region, McKenna says his team will face a extremely tough battle to defeat the Tigers, who are in form, despite the out of character loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium last week.

“We understand our role in cairns and have been happy with our results up there but that doesn’t guarantee us a win this week,” McKenna said.

“We’re going to have to play a lot better than we have over the last previous weeks for us to get the result.”

“I think Richmond, on the fact they lost last week, are going to come out smoking so we have to make sure we own the football and use it a lot better than we have done in the last month.”

And with AFL powerhouses West Coast, Carlton and Collingwood waiting around the corner for the Gold Coast, McKenna knows his boys need to get a win on the board as they prepare for a tough draw ahead. 

“We’ll have West Coast away and two big clubs in Carlton and Collingwood at home so the next four matches are going to be really big tests for us,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge with the personnel we have available to us, and they’re ready to take it on which is really exciting to see.”