Richmond’s recruiting and list management team is looking to beef up the Tigers midfield this off-season, whether that be during the player movement period, or the National Draft.

Early predictions about the strength of talent in the 2014 National Draft would give Richmond confidence of improving its list through those means.

“The main area for us is we’d really like to improve our midfield depth,” Tigers’ General Manager of Football Dan Richardson told AFL Trade Radio.

“We feel like this year’s draft has a lot of depth in that area, and we feel like that’s a strategy that will allow us to achieve that.

“By the same token, should there be opportunities to look at other players from other clubs via trading, it’s obviously something we’ll be proactive in considering.

“With the trade period, where that ends up and where that goes sometimes is a bit speculative, but we’ll certainly be working hard to improve our list in that area.”

The 2014 Free Agency period begins today (Friday, October 3), with the trade period commencing this Monday.

Richmond will be looking to improve its list immediately, while keeping one eye on the future.

“You have to consistently plan ahead, and try to think two to three years out,” Richardson said.

“We’re no different to that, but obviously that’s balanced with keeping an eye on the present as well.

“Trying to get the balance between the future and the present is a challenge for any footy club.

“I’d like to think Blair Hartley, our list manager, with our recruiting team, with obviously myself heavily involved in that area of the Club, we’d like to think there’s a lot of planning.

“We’ve always got a strategy in place.  The biggest challenge is sticking to that strategy, despite some of the external noise and speculation that comes about.”