RICHMOND is confident the massive deal required to re-sign Dustin Martin won't inhibit the club fitting a big-name recruit into its salary cap.

With Martin finally signing a seven-year deal reportedly worth somewhere between $1.2 to $1.3 million a season, that contract takes a sizable chunk out of the Tigers' $12.45 million salary cap.

With skipper Trent Cotchin, All Australian defender Alex Rance, dual Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt and former Sun Dion Prestia all on lucrative deals, Richmond general manager – football talent Dan Richardson believes the Tigers can still attract a big fish to Punt Road.

"We're confident we can retain all the players we want to retain and, at the appropriate time, strengthen our list should the opportunity arise," Richardson told SEN on Friday.

"The age of free agency makes the challenge of managing your list more dynamic, even though it always has been.

"But we certainly feel we're building a strong, young list, and we certainly wouldn't make any decisions around one player that would compromise that."

Richardson was central to the drawn-out negotiations with Martin's manager Ralph Carr, but he believes discussions like that will become common place in the AFL.

While the Tigers were always confident they'd retain the Brownlow Medal favourite's services, he said it was a huge relief when they received the news Thursday afternoon Martin that Martin would be a Tiger for life.

"It certainly took a while this one," Richardson said.

"I don't know how many meetings we had between myself, (Neil Balme) and Ralph.

"With the age of free agency, we all probably need to get used to it.

"It will happen more and more often, and whether we like or not, free agency is here to stay.

"It certainly brings challenges for a club to retain star players but it also brings opportunities bring in new ones."