On Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s return:

“He’s going well…it’s his third day in here this week, so we’ll just keep ticking off the days and building momentum.

“It’s been a difficult time for him, and a difficult time for everyone to understand.

“Now we go through a different period where he’s now trying to apply himself and find a way – in a football career sense. He’s got a fair bit to get through to get there, but we’ll go through that patiently.

“It’s probably difficult to make predictions about when he might play at either level. It’s probably best we keep our powder dry on that.”

On Marcus Bontempelli’s contract status:

“I’m not actually sure (how close he is to re-signing). We had a celebration for he and Libba at the MCG on Tuesday night, just to celebrate their contributions to the footy club.

“He’s already mentioned that now is the time to start talking about the terms and conditions, so that’s a real positive. How long that takes though, is an unknown.

“I stay right out of (those conversations). Sam Power will connect with (manager) Tom Petroro and work it all out.

“I’m not concerned…I think it’s a bit later in the season than he has (signed) in the past. That’s what we are contemplating, but I know more than anyone how much he has had on his plate.

“He’s had a bit on but hopefully we can organise something pretty quickly now.”

On the 10-day break:

“It almost feels like we’ve had another bye to be honest.

“The specifics around the five-day break afterwards, we need to keep it in mind…anyone who is a little bit uncertain.

“Our playing group was pretty healthy coming out of last week’s game, so any uncertainty today we’ll make a conservative decision.”

On coming up against Richmond:

“Richmond’s best performances this year have been impressive. I think their most impressive game was against the Suns at Marvel.

“The Tiges have got a new enthusiasm towards playing at Marvel, because they played extremely well against the Suns to beat them there earlier in the year. They’ll look forward to playing us there I imagine.

“They’d be stung a bit after their last game against Sydney, so we’ve got to expect a bit of a ride early in the game.”

On Cody Weightman:

“It was an investigative process this latest procedure – just to run some tests and make sure we can accelerate his recovery from the procedures he’s already had.

“Our experts are pretty confident that structurally his knee is in pretty good order. He’s just had some swelling at times that we are trying to get to the bottom of.

“It’s nothing too dramatic – we’re just trying to understand him and his makeup, and his powers of recovery more than anything.”