Richmond coach, Damien Hardwick, assistant coach, Brendon Lade, and the Club’s IT and analysis manager, Hayden Hill, have returned to Tigerland following a week-long, fact-finding mission in the USA.

The trio visited several leading American sporting franchises, where they met coaches, players and key personnel, gaining a valuable insight into the respective organisations’ operations.

“We went to the (San Francisco) 49ers, and the (Seattle) Seahawks, both NFL teams, and we also got to see the facilities at the (Seattle) Mariners, who are a baseball team, as well,” Lade said on the “Tiger Trade Central” panel show.

“It was really insightful and, hopefully, we can add some of what we learned there to what we’re doing here . . .

“The 49ers are building a brand new stadium and facility, which will be state-of-the-art, and the Seahawks facility was very impressive.

“They’ve got a big aeroplane hangar, where they’ve got an indoor field.

“We got to meet a few of the players at the Seahawks, including a couple of their superstars, so we were very lucky . . .

“We met with the scouting and recruiting people at the teams.

“Hopefully, we can change a few of the things that we do with our scouting of opposition teams, or opposition players that we’re looking to trade for.

“We can use a bit of that and, hopefully, get them into our club using their systems.”