Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has revealed that the Club's pre-season was built around getting the side off to a strong start to the year, after poor beginnings to the past three seasons.

The Tigers won the season-opening meeting with Carlton last year, before losing their next six games, and Hardwick is hoping a shift over summer will pay off.

“We probably, over the course of the last four or five years, have had indifferent starts . . . We did go back and look at some figures, and we felt our best start to the season may have been 2013. It was four practice matches and the majority of our list played two-and-a-half or three games,” Hardwick said on the eve of Richmond kicking off its 2017 campaign against the Blues at the MCG.

“We tried to get more minutes into our guys this year, hoping it then transfers into the regular season. 

“We have adjusted that, so, once again, we'll get to see the dividends of that, hopefully, on Thursday night.”

The Tigers also enter the contest with the fittest list of Hardwick's time at the Club, with the coach saying 43 players were available for Round 1 selection.

“Our fitness and strength and conditioning staff have done a wonderful job in getting those guys available, and it's been a really tough process at match committee. The magnets have been flying around non-stop, and it's a great place to be,” he said.