Richmond president Gary March is convinced the Club is much better placed to build on the gains made this season than the previous time it made the finals in 2001.

The Tigers fell from a preliminary final berth in ’01 to 14^th in 2002, recording seven wins and 15 losses.

“If you look at probably our 10 best players at the moment, Brett Deledio, at 26, is the oldest of those.  So our list profile is significantly different than in 2001, where our best 10 players, the majority of them were over 26,” March said on 3AW.

“The list is in a good position . . . we still need to add to that list and we’ve got to get better.

“But I think where our list is at, at the moment, there’s significant upside.

“For a lot of those guys (Richmond players in last Sunday’s elimination final), it was their first final.  So, they’ll learn from that – and they’ve got to learn from that . . .

“When you win 15 games and have a percentage of 122, you expect to go into your first final and win.

“So, the result was very disappointing . . .

“But, look, the positive was we won 15 games for the year, and we lost one by a point in Fremantle.

“Overall, it was a really strong year, a building year.  But we’re under no illusions we’ve got to get better, and going out first week in the finals tells us that.”