RICHMOND midfielder Dustin Martin slashed a minute off his previous fastest time for a lap of Melbourne's Botanical Gardens' Tan circuit as the Tigers trained on Friday morning.

Coach Damien Hardwick hailed the form his players showed, with Martin recording just over 14 minutes for the 3.8km run.

Matt White came first, followed by delisted rookie Pat Contin, who is still training with the club.

To view the full photo gallery from the circuit, click here

"We've been really impressed with the way they've come back," Hardwick said.

"They've been really diligent in coming in to the club over summer, which is what we expected, and we're hoping to see the dividends over the course of the pre-season.

"We've set some pretty lofty ambitions for a lot of our guys and they've come back in reasonably good shape, which is great."

Defender Bachar Houli came third in the run, with Martin, Brett Deledio and Daniel Jackson finishing shortly afterwards.

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New recruits Ivan Maric and Steven Morris, son of dual Richmond premiership player Kevin, also impressed with middle of the pack finishes.

"[Morris] is a competitive beast, we've seen that already in couple of sessions," Hardwick said. 

"His competitive nature is going to be the thing that gets him to where he needs to go.

"We'd be disappointed if he didn't play some form of senior footy this year, and Ivan is another very competitive individual and that's what we're after.

"We've got to improve in a number of areas and that's one of them and why we got him across to our footy club."

A dozen players were absent from the run, including forward Jack Riewoldt, captain Chris Newman, defender Kel Moore and recent International Rules representative Jake King.

King strained a medial ligament in his knee in the first game of the series against Ireland last month, and was ruled out of the second Test on the Gold Coast.

"During the year it would probably be a three- to four-week injury, so he's fine," Hardwick said.

"He'll be able to run early next week and we're confident he'll be back in training; he's a pretty fit guy as you know so he'll be back annoying the hell out of us in a couple of weeks.

"We had a large surgery list at the end of last year but the great thing about it is the majority of them are actually up and running but more on the soft surfaces back at the club.

"They'll join in over the course of the next two to three weeks and we're pretty confident by Christmas we'll have our full list on deck."

Hardwick said players would be made to earn their spots in the team next season after the club achieved its aim of getting 500 games into those aged under 22.

"It's a young squad but our training is improving, so we've just got to keep maintaining that. We up the ante, and we'll up it again this year as compared to last year," he said.

"We've just got to be careful because it is a six-month pre-season - it's a long time, one of the longest in world sport, so we've got to make sure when we train we train with a passion and intensity that's required but we don't overtrain at the same time.

"We're looking to upward trend again. Last year we improved from the previous year and we'll be looking for that sort of situation again.

"Every player that plays will earn their jumper this year, more so than us looking to develop certain players."

Hardwick said veteran midfielder Shane Tuck deserved the one-year contract extension he was given this week and would provide midfield depth.

"He's a quality player when he's in there, which we saw when he came back into the side [this year] and he contributed really well," he said.

"He deserved his year and what happens from here on in, we're not sure."

However, Hardwick ruled out interest in Tuck's younger brother Travis or former St Kilda defender Zac Dawson.

Tuck is looking for a second chance after becoming the first player to record three strikes under the AFL's illicit drugs policy in 2010 and being delisted by Hawthorn.

He has nominated for the November 24 NAB AFL Draft after spending the past season with Werribee.

Dawson walked out on the Saints on Thursday after rejecting their contract offer.