Richmond’s playing group will head north for pre-season camp on the Gold Coast next week.
It will be a change of scenery for the Tigers, who have spent their last few pre-season camps on the Sunshine Coast.
Assistant coach Blake Caracella said the camp, which runs from Sunday until Friday, will be instrumental for the younger players to “get around the older players and live in their pockets.”
“It’s a chance for those players to get to know their teammates who play next to them on the ground, and also to get to know them off-field as well and learn a bit about each other,” he said.
“And at the same time, we get to go about our training schedule like we would down here, we run the same program that we run in Melbourne… we’re looking forward to the sunshine.”
Caracella said the Tigers are excited for the week of solid training, bonding and pre-season refinement that awaits.
“We all know that the game moves pretty quickly and we need to try to stay ahead of the curve and find a way to improve on last year and hopefully go one better,” he said.
“We’ve got a pretty good list at the moment. Tom Lynch has been in rehab since he came to the club but he’s on track to play in Round 1, he did some drills today, and there’s only three or four other players that aren’t training.”
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The players, particularly the young Tigers, will be looking to prove themselves on the Gold Coast ahead of selection for the JLT series.
With only two games in this year’s series, Caracella said selection will be tougher.
“In the past we’ve tended to play all our players two out of the three games, so I think this year we’ll lean towards playing our players in both those games which makes it hard to work out which young players to play,” he said.
“There’s only so many spots and (the players) need to get match fitness as well.”
The trip will also be a debut Richmond camp for new assistant coach Adam Kingsley, who Caracella said has “fitted in really well” at the Club.
“He’s got a great reputation,” Caracella said.
“He’ll be looking after the stoppages for us this year and doing some midfield stuff with myself as well.
“He’s brought some new ideas to help us with that contested ball and the stoppages, which we haven’t been fantastic at the last couple of years, but if we can improve in that area it might just help us go that one step further.”
Tiger fans in Queensland are welcomed to attend an open training session on Monday, January 21 at Bond University.
Players will be available for a short signing session after the training.
