Richmond CEO Shane Dunne has declared the 2027 campaign "an important year for the whole Club" as the Tigers prepare to officially begin pre-season training on November 9.
Excitement is building towards next season after the release of the fixture on Thursday, and while Richmond has an enticing assortment of young talent, Dunne, and the entire Club, knows it's time to take the next step.
"It's an important year for the whole Club," Dunne said on SEN.
"It's an important year, like every year is, not just Adem [Yze] but for all of us. In [Yze's] address on Jack Dyer Medal night, he talked about [how] we don't want to keep talking about what we might become, but we need to go and become it.
"We know we've got young, talented players, and we need to see that development and we need to see significant improvement in our on-field competitiveness. That is absolutely what we're striving to achieve.Â
"It's a bold strategy we've put in place by really aggressively taking young draftees and top end talent and with that takes some time but we're as impatient as our members and fans are. We want to see growth and we want to see that improvement and that's what we expect to see this season.Â
"We're absolutely striving to build a list and a game plan and a game model that'll bring us finals, and ultimately, premiership success."
More talent will enter the Swinburne Centre in the coming weeks, with the Tigers holding picks two, five, 44 and 99 in the AFL Draft, which will be held on November 19 and 20.
"We've set a really clear strategy to aggressively get into the draft prior to Tassie coming in and hopefully now our members and everyone can see that strategy has come to fruition," Dunne said.
"It was a really clear strategy for us and we've got such top end talent that we've been able to bring into the Club, which is exciting but it's now on us to grab what is that young talent with high potential and turn them into elite AFL footballers."
Richmond's 2027 season will begin on Saturday, March 20, against Carlton at the MCG.
