Richmond General Manager of Football Neil Balme is confident his club will be able to effectively restructure its forward line to incorporate star recruit Tom Lynch.
The addition of the former Gold Coast captain provides a dynamic duo with reigning Coleman Medallist Jack Riewoldt, but does go against what the Tigers have built in recent years.
The club has put a strong focus on going small inside 50 and relying on forward half pressure through the likes of Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna, Dan Butler and others.
“I think if you’ve got Riewoldt and Lynch playing together, they’re both very, very good players, I’d be surprised if we can’t get an advantage out of that,” Balme told SEN’s KB & the Doc.
“It does mean you change the crumbing role slightly, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works.
“I’d be very surprised if these two guys aren’t very hard to stop.”
Balme said the club hasn’t quite worked out whether Lynch will be used as the club’s back-up ruckman, a role taken by the 190cm Shaun Grigg last year.
“It’s interesting because every one of the conditioning guys and the medicos, whenever you mention him going in the ruck, they go ‘no!’ Only because they’re concerned about the PCL stuff,” Balme said.
“He’s certainly the sort of player who could be your second ruckman, but your second ruckman if he doesn’t do centre bounces, can still do boundary throw ins and running around the ground.
“Right now, our focus is for him to play as a forward, but who knows what’ll happen.”
The Tigers kick off their 2019 campaign against Carlton at the MCG in their traditional Thursday night slot.