RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace says his club didn't intend to be misleading in the lead-up to securing new recruit Ben Cousins, but was simply guilty of over-confidence.

The Tigers were sure that the AFL Commission would grant them permission to move injured defender Graham Polak to the rookie list, giving them a second pick in the NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft. The plan was to then use that selection on Cousins.

But the Commission denied the request on Monday, throwing Richmond's hierarchy into confusion before they did one final back-flip and took the fallen Eagle.

That reversal came a bit late for president Gary March, who said last Friday that the club had ruled out taking Cousins with pick six – because it would be used for a younger player.

"Last Friday, the footy division was extremely confident that our application would get up, and we thought that for humanitarian reasons," Wallace said on Tuesday.

"Our point all the time was that even though this was a Graham Polak situation, we’d always tied it to Ben Cousins. And we’d let people know internally that was the case.

"At that stage (Friday), the footy department made an error in closing the door on pick six.

"Our president Gary March said that we would not pick Ben with this selection. Gary was only passing on what was the football division’s recommendations at that particular time.

"On Monday, the footy division was genuinely shocked by the Commission’s decision, albeit we abide by that decision without any problems.

"Rightly or wrongly, we hadn’t really factored in the decision going the other way at that point in time."

Cousins arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday night, ahead of his first training session as a Tiger on Wednesday.