Injured Tom Lynch will be back for Dusty’s 300th

The beleaguered Tigers have received welcome news,with champion forward Tom Lynch slated to return for Dustin Martin’s 300th game.

The milestone match,which will be against Hawthorn in round 14,will be Lynch’s first game since suffering a hamstring injury against the Swans in round three.

Tom Lynch is set to return for Dustin Martin’s 300th match.

Tom Lynch is set to return for Dustin Martin’s 300th match.AFL Photos

After half a season of carnage and struggle on the field,Richmond are finally on the mend and will welcome back three key players for Thursday night’s round-13 clash in Adelaide.

The Tigers will regain gun midfielder Tim Taranto after a long absence,triple-premiership star and veteran Dion Prestia and the club’s best match-winner Shai Bolton,who has recovered from a concussion he sustained in the Dreamtime game.

Taranto has missed seven games after fracturing his wrist and requiring surgery. With Lynch,he is arguably the player that the Tigers have missed most amid a horror run of injuries. Mykelti Lefau was the fifth Tiger this season to sustain an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The return of those three key and experienced players more than offsets the absence of champion veteran Martin for the Adelaide trip.

Tim Taranto will return for the Tigers.

Tim Taranto will return for the Tigers.AFL Photos

The Tigers have chosen to rest Martin in part because of the short,five-day break between games and also to ensure that his 300th game is played at the MCG in front of the Tiger army the following week in what will be a significant event for the club collectively.

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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.

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