Richmond coach Terry Wallace is uncertain whether either Nathan Brown or Nathan Foley will return from injury for Saturday's AFL clash with Fremantle.

Both Tigers stars missed Sunday's surprise win over Hawthorn, Foley a late withdrawal with a hip injury, while Brown has been struggling with leg soreness in several spots for the past three or four weeks.

"They're both still in calculations," Wallace said of the pair's prospects of playing against the Dockers.

"(Foley's) probably done a little bit more today in our skills session just from a running point of view than what Browny did.

"Browny was still stationary today but it's only early in the week, so we'll give both those boys an opportunity to come up later in the week.

"I'd sort of say that Nathan Foley's ahead of Nathan Brown at the minute."

Wallace said Brown's leg soreness was due to some recent knocks and was in the other leg to that in which he suffered a severe break in 2005.

Richmond must beat the Dockers to have any hope of making the finals and Wallace said they expected a fight, despite having thrashed them by 10 goals earlier in the year.

"Their contested footy game's improved and their clearance footy game's improved immeasurably in the second half of the year which makes them a more dangerous item than what they perhaps were in the first half of the year, so we don't take them lightly," he said.

Wallace said the win over Hawthorn, Richmond's first this season over any of the current top eight sides, had been significant for the belief it instilled in his young squad.

"It's important for our guys to know they can compete with sides that have been right up there for the entire year, so I think that that's really important," he said.

"I think also from a direction point of view, as much as I can sit there and say that I believe in our younger group of players and I think we're very even in a group of players that are coming through.

"For them to actually see that themselves ... probably helps us sell the message to ourselves that we've been trying to portray."

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