Richmond captain Trent Cotchin is excited about the revolution the Tigers’ forward line is set to experience with boom recruit Tom Lynch up front.
As the entire Richmond group – minus Alex Rance, who has an extra week of holiday – reconvened on Monday for the first time this pre-season, Cotchin declared it would take time for the new system featuring Lynch to come together, but there was plenty to look forward to with his inclusion in the line-up.
"They say change is as good as a holiday, but without actually seeing it and training and seeing how the system works, it's hard to comment on," Cotchin said.
"But I'm really excited to see what he brings, but also the way our group that are structured around him down there can help his game as well.
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"I think it always does [take time] and typically over the pre-season you work on a few different things and that takes time to flourish as well."
Lynch remains on restricted duties following last month's minor procedure on the knee that needed a posterior cruciate ligament repair back in July.
He was on the track for the start of the two-hour session at Punt Road, but was restricted to light drills before going inside.
Dustin Martin, however, appeared to be carrying no lingering effects of the quad/knee injury that hampered him during the 2018 preliminary final and put in a solid full session.
Martin, who holidayed in Thailand and the United States over the off-season, moved freely and even showed off some explosive bursts during the match simulation.
"He actually came back last week to do a session with the boys a little bit earlier," Cotchin said.
"He's just excited to sink his teeth into another season.
"Obviously, everyone will be talking about the way he finished off the year, but he had another fantastic season in 2018 and he'll go again."
Cotchin did not require off-season surgery, but has started his 2019 campaign at reduced pace, training on Monday with the rehab group that kept to conditioning drills.
He ran with Jack Riewoldt, who had minor shoulder surgery in October, and Jack Graham, who is on his way back from a shoulder reconstruction and won't ramp things up until after Christmas.
Also on limited duties were Jacob Townsend (foot), Ryan Garthwaite (ankle) and Ben Miller (hip), while veteran Bachar Houli took part in most of the session before finishing off with the running group.
The hitout ended with timed laps, where Brandon Ellis, Kane Lambert, Dion Prestia, Oleg Markov, Jake Aarts and Nathan Broad were standout performers.
Top draftee Riley Collier-Dawkins also impressed in some of the earlier running drills.
Maverick Weller completed the whole session in his first official training hitout with his new club, while WA prospect Sydney Stack – who is in contention for the Tigers' final list spot via the new pre-season supplemental selection rule – also joined in most of the conditioning drills and showed off some impressive skills.
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Meanwhile, Cotchin doesn’t believe the playing group would need to use the disappointing preliminary final loss to Collingwood as motivation for the 2019 season.
"Until just then I hadn't really thought about it," he said.
"It's the power of acceptance; it was what it was and there's not much I can do about it now.
"We didn't play really well on that night and they (the Magpies) played exceptionally well.
"The way we played and prepared for the majority of last year was an improvement on the year prior, but we didn't quite get the reward we wanted to . . . We'll be striving to go again throughout this pre-season, along with some fresh faces.
"It'll be what it will be when the season comes around."
