With three premierships in the past four seasons, Richmond is now firmly focused on maintaining its position as the pacesetter of the AFL competition.

Although this is a formidable assignment, the Club’s General Manager – Football Talent – Blair Hartley believes the Tigers are well prepared to tackle it.

“That’s the challenge with the Total Player Payments and trade and free agency system that we operate under in the AFL . . . how you can try and stay at the top for as long as you possibly can, because the system dictates you probably shouldn’t,” Hartley said on SEN.

“So, to have the ability to be able to regenerate, while you’re contending, is a challenge that we continue to work towards.

“We’re pretty excited with some of the guys who we haven’t seen a lot of yet that we’re looking forward to seeing over the next little bit, whether that’s Riley Collier-Dawkins, who just signed a new two-year deal, Jack Ross, Callum Coleman-Jones, Thomson Dow, Hugo Ralphsmith, who we took last year (national draft).

“We’re looking forward to those guys, who’ve had a terrific experience up in the hub, hopefully emerge even more next year.”