Richmond Media caught up with Jacob Hopper after the Club secured the midfielder on Tuesday during the AFL Trade Period. He shares his thoughts and excitement around becoming a Tiger...

Joining Richmond

"It's so exciting. Once I made the decision I felt like I was a Tiger, but then obviously I had to wait for the deal to go through and for it to be official. Just nothing but excitement and eagerness to get started."

The welcome from his new teammates

"The welcome from the boys has been very good. Everyone's got around me, so it's great to feel the love and to make some new connections. I'm just really excited to meet everyone and to get to play footy with the boys, people I've admired and loved competing against, to now be able to play with, is something I'm really looking forward to."

Why he wanted to come to Tigerland

"The decision to come to Tigerland was really straight forward in the end. Once I met a few of the boys and met some of the management and staff and people within the building, such great people and with the history of the football club as well, to become a part of that, I'm incredibly privileged and honoured to get the opportunity to play for this great club."

Playing in front of the Tiger Army

"To play in front of a huge fan base is something I'm really looking forward to. The Tiger Army is massive so to play some big games in front of big crowds is going to be awesome."

What he wants to develop at Richmond

"Coming in, I want to continue to improve on my game and get better and grow in another game plan now. I've spent seven years at the Giants and playing there was great and I've got so many people to thank there, but coming somewhere new with new coaches and new minds and different views on the game is something that is going to help grow my game both on and off the field and just continue to build more and more relationships. When you're in the game, you get the meet so many great people along the way, so to do be able to create more relationships and more friendships is something that's going to be really cool to do as well."

What he wants to bring to the side

"Coming in, all I want to do is just complement the team and the great culture and performance that already exists within the team, and complement in any way I can. Bring my natural game and just help us win games of footy, and just keep winning as many games as we can and put ourselves in a position to be as successful as we possibly can."

Moving across with teammate and good friend Tim Tarranto

"The opportunity to join Tim and come across together is something that's really unique. We've played footy together now for six years, so we're pumped to get the opportunity to keep playing footy together, and to do it here is something that's going to be special to both of us and we're just so excited to do it."

New teammates he's already familiar with

"I've played with Dan Rioli before at school, so we'll be able to reunite and play some footy together again, and he had such a great year last year. There's so many boys that I've admired and loved competing against, and the communication before all this with all of them has been so great. To name a few would be unfair, so I'm looking forward to playing with everyone."

Signing a seven-year contract

"It's a new space, you sign smaller contracts coming through the Giants and you didn't really know long-term what it looked like. But to now be able to say I'm a Tiger for the next seven years, it feels really cool to say, and it's something that's humbling. I'm really looking forward to spending the back half of my career here and helping us be as successful as we can."

Meeting Damien Hardwick

"To get to meet Dimma and have some good conversations with him has been so great. I've admired him as a coach from afar as well, so now to be coached by him is something that I'm pumped for and to build that relationship and that bond is something that's going to be really cool and to play footy with him and for him is something I'm really looking forward to doing. Everything about it is so exciting, from management to every staff member I've met to all the boys, to even a few fans I've met as well. It's a great opportunity and something that I've dreamt of, to be able to play at a club like Richmond. It's incredibly humbling and exciting."

Joining the Tigers' midfield brigade

"The midfield that exists here is already great, so to be able to come in and learn and push each other is a really cool thing and I'm looking forward to the pre-season first and foremost and getting to work with everyone."