Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is fully aware of the extent of the task that will confront his team in Friday night’s blockbuster preliminary final against Collingwood at the MCG.

Hardwick, however, believes the Tigers are well equipped to successfully deal with whatever the Magpies throw at them.

“Collingwood have been in terrific form . . . they’re a good side,” Hardwick said.

“We’re under no illusions that the game itself is going to throw a set of challenges to us, as coaches and as players.

“We’ve played them twice (this season), we’ve got a good understanding of how they play, but we’ve got to play our best to beat them.

“They had a couple of injuries in those games. We look at our KPI indicators and they were very strong in both those games . . .

 “We’re both very much system-based sides. We’re really confident that our system versus their system stands up. And they’ll be the same with ours.

“These are brutal games, prelims, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Hardwick has dismissed any concerns about the Tigers carrying a hefty weight of expectation into the match, as the 2017 premiers and 2018 minor premiers.

“The expectation can weigh you down if you acknowledge it. We don’t, we just go about and do what we do,” Hardwick said.

“We’re very process-orientated here and we’ve got a good understanding of what makes us play our best football.

“If you start worrying about the outcome, you’re not going to get the result you’re after.

“So we just worry about what we can control, we stay in the moment, and we get the job done.”