Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has put his midfield on notice after last week's AFL season-opening loss to Carlton.

Hardwick said the group needed to improve dramatically, especially against highly-rated St Kilda this Friday night at the MCG.

"If our midfield's not better than last week we're in a lot of trouble," Hardwick said on Wednesday.

"They were very poor last week - I think we got smashed in the clearances by 18 which is a smashing of biblical proportions.

"We need our midfield to generate some more ball. We had some really disappointing performances in there.

"We spoke about it this week and if those guys get up and going the ball gets going in our direction, which solves a lot of our problems."

St Kilda were unlucky to lose to Geelong by a kick in the dying minutes of last week's dour struggle and Hardwick has warned his young group to expect a much-improved opposition.

"Although the scoreboard will say it was a low-scoring affair, it was actually a really strong arm-wrestle," he said.

"The Saints play a tough, hard contested brand of footy, as do Geelong, and we look forward to the challenge of playing that as well.

"I'm sure it will be a more open affair than what you saw last week.

"You've got to remember it's round one and sides are generally pretty rusty, as we were and probably we were."

Despite the fact the Saints have a 13-game winning streak against Richmond dating back to 2003, Hardwick is confident the Tigers are not too far off the pace.

"There are certain sides you match up really well against and St Kilda is one of those sides that we over the course of the last couple of times we've played them, have competed (against) really well," he said.

"They're a side we enjoy playing, they're a terrific outfit, well-structured and something we strive to be.

He also dismissed the Tigers' losing streak against St Kilda as being of virtually no relevance.

"From my point of view, nine-tenths of those blokes wouldn't have played or have any recollection of that record," he said.

"Last year was our first year as a group and we lost two of those games by under six goals so we're in reasonable form again the Saints."

Hardwick also praised the improvement Richmond had shown over the last 12 months.

"We lost by 10 goals (in round one) last year and lost by 20 points this year and with 20 minutes to go we were in front by eight points so they've come a long way," he said.

"They've still got a long way to go - we're second year in of a process that's probably going to take us some time."

Jake King is likely to return from suspension, but Shane Tuck could spend another week in the VFL.

Will Thursfield and Dylan Grimes are candidates to replace suspended defender Alex Rance.

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