A rise in the quantity and quality of Richmond’s pre-season training is helping them prepare for the 2014 season.

Tigers’ defender Steven Morris has noticed an increase in training loads, and a lift in the quality of each session, as the players build towards their first official pre-season game on Friday, February 14 against Melbourne.

“I think we’re training a lot better than we did this time last year, and hopefully we can take that into the games in a few weeks’ time,” Morris said on SEN’s Morning Glory program.

Sign up as a Richmond member for the 2014 season, online at the Tigers’ membership web hub

“Our standards at training have lifted, and what we expect of each other.  We’ve got a better understanding of what we expect of each other out on the field.

“I think the skill level has gone to another level, and the quantity of our training has gone up.”

Richmond will look to iron out inconsistencies within matches as it aims to achieve back-to-back finals appearances in 2014.

“We’ve beaten the two grand finalists in the last two seasons, so we can be very good, but the main thing is we want to be better for longer,” Morris said.

“Too many times last year we just had 10 to 15-minute fadeouts that cost us four or five goals.

“We understand we just have to put an end to that if we want to consistently be competitive against the very best sides.”