When Richmond began their rebuild under new coach Damien Hardwick and former president Gary March, they knew they could not have begun at a worse time. What was already shaping up as a painstaking process would be impacted by the arrival of expansion clubs Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, who would be handed a stunning array of first-round draft selections and list concessions.

This meant the Tigers would have to do more than just go through the draft if they wanted to rebuild at a brisk rate. Remember, this was at a time Matt Rendell, then Adelaide's recruiting chief, warned the Suns and Giants would soon become "superstar teams" and potentially dominate for several years.

"We were not going to be able to do the rebuild by just going to the draft all the time for 18-year-olds," March said at the time.

"We are by no means saying we are there yet. But if you ask about rebuilding, we looked at our list when Damien came in and we knew we had a big hole in the players in their mid-20s, and there was a clear strategy from the footy department to bring in guys in the 22-25 bracket to complement the list."