RICHMOND'S forward line is in for a revolution next season but players and coaches will have to wait a little while before seeing the two-headed monster of Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt in action.
Boom recruit Lynch remains on restricted duties following last month's "minor" procedure on the knee that needed a posterior cruciate ligament repair back in July.
But Tiger captain Trent Cotchin says he is excited about the imminent restructure to the team's front six.
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As the entire Richmond group – minus Alex Rance, who has an extra week of holiday – reconvened on Monday for the first time this pre-season, Cotchin said it would take time for their new system featuring Lynch to come together.
"They say change is as good as a holiday but without actually seeing it and training and seeing how the system works, it's hard to comment on," Cotchin said.
"But I'm really excited to see what he brings but also the way our group that are structured around him down there can help his game as well.
"I think it always does [take time] and typically over the pre-season you work on a few different things and that takes time to flourish as well."
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Lynch was on the track for the start of the two-hour session at Punt Road but was restricted to light drills before going inside.
More encouragingly, Dustin Martin appeared to be carrying no lingering effects of the quad/knee injury that hampered his finals campaign and put in a solid full session.
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Martin, who holidayed in Thailand and the United States over the off-season, moved freely and even showed off some explosive bursts during the match simulation.
"He actually came back last week to do a session with the boys a little bit earlier," Cotchin said.
Superstar Tiger Dustin Martin at pre-season training on Monday. Picture: AFL Photos
"He's just excited to sink his teeth into another season.
"Obviously, everyone will be talking about the way he finished off the year but he had another fantastic season in 2018 and he'll go again."
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Cotchin required no off-season surgery but has started his 2019 campaign at reduced pace and trained on Monday with the rehab group that kept to conditioning drills.
He ran with Riewoldt, who had minor shoulder surgery in October, and Jack Graham, who is on his way back from a shoulder reconstruction and won't ramp things up until after Christmas.
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Also on limited duties were Jacob Townsend (foot), Ryan Garthwaite (ankle) and Ben Miller (hip), while veteran Bachar Houli took part in most of the session before finishing off with the running group.
The hitout ended with timed laps, where Brandon Ellis, Kane Lambert, Dion Prestia, Oleg Markov, Jake Aarts and Nathan Broad were standout performers.
Their top draftee Riley Collier-Dawkins also impressed in some of the earlier running drills.
Maverick Weller completed the whole session in his first official training hitout with his new club while WA prospect Sydney Stack – who is in contention for the Tigers' final list spot via the new pre-season supplemental selection rule – also joined in most of the conditioning drills and showed off some impressive skills.
Meanwhile, Cotchin said the group wouldn't need to use their preliminary final heartbreak as motivated for the season ahead.
"Until just then I hadn't really thought about it," he said.
"It's the power of acceptance; it was what it was and there's not much I can do about it now.
"We didn't play really well on that night and they (the Magpies) played exceptionally well.
"The way we played and prepared for the majority of last year was an improvement on the year prior and we didn't quite get the reward we wanted to and we'll be striving to go again throughout this pre-season along with some fresh faces.
"It'll be what it will be when the season comes around."
