2014 preview: Richmond (Age)

[one-eyed]

VIDEO: 2014 preview: Richmond (04:51)

What can the Tiger Army expect from their team in 2014? Scott Spits and Rohan Connolly preview Richmond's year ahead.

Watch here: http://media.theage.com.au/sport/afl-real-footy/2014-preview-richmond-5213424.html


* Pass mark: Winning a final.

* Connolly said you can put too much weight on their Elim. Final loss to Carlton. They did finish 5th at the end of the H&A just outside the top 4. Still a couple of things make them short of the very top sides but there's no reason they shouldn't be aiming for top 4.

* Richmond have improved year on year under Hardwick.

* Richmond's further improvement depends on Ellis, Conca and Vlastuin. All had good moments last year and you'd expect their natural improvement again this year when added to the stars Cotch, Martin and Lids, should see a really classy midfield.

* Rookies Thomas and Miles look like being good pick ups based on the Collingwood game and add further to Richmond's midfield depth.

* Hampson should see more time in the ruck at Richmond as opposed to being part-time ruck/part-time forward when he was at Carlton. His recruitment makes Maric's loss to injury not as devastating as it could've been.

[Stripes]

All good points really. Another major reason why we had such a good midfield last year was because players like Jackson, S.Edwards, King and even White and McGuane stepped up last year. We should be expecting improvement in our young midfield brigade but it is improvement that the role/bit players like Miles, Thomas, Foley, Vickery, Hampson, Griffiths etc could add that would catapult us up the ladder.

I can see this happening