Richmond’s mature-aged recruit, Orren Stephenson, is determined to enhance his flexibility as a ruckman, to give himself the best chance of success at Tigerland.

Stephenson was recruited to the Club via the recent AFL Rookie Draft, and has been working on his forward-line craft to enhance his repertoire.

“I try to have a presence around the ground, and around the contest.  Those are my strengths,” Stephenson said.

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"But I think there’s plenty of development for me to be had.  You can’t be expected to play ruck all day.

“One of the areas the game is changing is that the ruckmen have to be able to go forward, and not actually rest, but to create a contest and kick a couple of goals a game.”

While the 30-year-old recognises Ivan Maric is the Tigers’ number one ruckman, he will look to impress if given a chance in next month’s pre-season competition, and throughout the 2013 season.

“Ivan’s the number one ruck here, and he had a great year last year.  I’m just trying to push him, and if I get an opportunity, I’ll grab it with both hands.”

Stephenson played eight matches in one season at Geelong in 2012, after a glittering VFL career.

“I started reasonably well, but had some low form in the middle of the year.  I got an opportunity later in the year and I thought I took hold of that,” Stephenson told SEN.

“The expectations for me coming into it were that there was no guarantee to play AFL footy, so I was going to push myself to at least play one game.

“I ended up playing eight, l and I think I did reasonably well.”