Former Demon Ricky Petterd is one of several recycled players snapped up by Richmond. Picture: Michael Klein. Source: Herald Sun
RICHMOND hasn't become the Visy Tigers because it is ready to win a premiership.
It has topped up with enough recycled players to make Jeanne Pratt proud because it can't even beat Gold Coast.
Kurt Tippett might have finally arrived at Sydney yesterday, but the headline act of the pre-season and rookie drafts was still Damien Hardwick's Tigers.
You can't recruit Sam Lonergan, Ricky Petterd and Orren Stephenson without immediately heaping expectation upon the AFL's most persistent underachiever of the past 30 seasons.
Richmond knows it and those Twitter wags yesterday suggesting a Visy sponsorship know it.
In all, Richmond has added six recycled players in the space of one
off-season hit, with Aaron Edwards lured in the trade period and Troy Chaplin and Chris Knights added through free agency.
Not even the reality the six players were effectively taken for the swapped No.74 pick it took to get Edwards will stop some from believing Richmond is getting ahead of itself.
But inside Punt Road this off-season, the reality is very different.
Hardwick was totally aware that as injuries finally hit Richmond in the last half of the 2012 season, they had no one left to turn to.
No back-up for Ivan Maric when his groins started screaming, no
second-forward option when Jack Riewoldt got sore and Tyrone Vickery busted up his shoulders.
Profiles of every recruit in the Draft Tracker
And no midfield depth when Dustin Martin was suspended and Nathan Foley's troublesome achilles flared up again.
It saw the Tigers win just three of the last eight games, unable to beat Gold Coast for a second successive year and only drawing the Round 23 clash against easybeats Port Adelaide.
Petterd and Edwards won't tear a game apart, but they might draw enough attention from Riewoldt to let him explode.
Ditto for Sam Lonergan and Knights in the midfield rotation, who will allow Brett Deledio, Martin and Trent Cotchin to spend more time forward of centre.
So while the recruiting spree will add heat to the Carlton-Richmond Round 1 clash, it is really about ensuring that first finals campaign since 2001, not the Tigers setting their sights on a flag.
If the pre-season draft was a total fizzer yesterday, it doesn't mean there weren't clubs strengthening premiership aspirations.
Collingwood's recruitment of Ben Hudson is inspired. He won't win it the flag through heroics, but he might just keep Darren Jolly fresh enough, or teach Brodie Grundy and Jarrod Witts enough as a ruck coach, to make that critical difference in September.
Sydney's dynamic forward line with Tippett has already been well-documented.
Put simply, they should be the short-priced flag favourites rather than Hawthorn.
Richmond might be the pre-season spruik given yesterday's efforts, but by Round 15, Tippett might already be worth every cent he was paid.
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