KEY DEFENSIVE duo Alex Rance and David Astbury are key to Richmond succeeding in 2015, according to star forward Jack Riewoldt.

Riewoldt believes Rance, who was named at centre-half back in the 2014 All Australian side, can elevate his game to a new level based on his pre-season training form.

"He (Rance) is held in very high regard at our football club," Riewoldt said at Brighton Beach on Thursday.

"He'd be one of the top two trainers in every session. The way he pushes himself and how professional he is, a lot of people knew he was going to come along the way he has.

"The biggest thing for him is to back it up and from what I've seen in the pre-season this year he's ready to take another step. So it's exciting times for him."

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Astbury was a more than adequate fill-in for the first part of the season when Rance was overcoming his ankle issues, before dislocating his knee in May last year.

Riewoldt said the pair, along with the steady influence of Troy Chaplin, would create a formidable combination.

"Another guy down back who's going to be really strong for us is Dave Astbury," Riewoldt said. 

"We saw some fruits of his labour, with Alex being out last year, playing on some of the bigger key forwards seeing how good a player he was and it was unfortunate that he had another knee injury. 

"Those two guys down there are creating a great little duo and hopefully we can continue to build a strong backline around those guys."

The Tigers are keen to start the 2015 season on a better note than last year, when they opened with just three wins from their first 13 games before flying home to make the finals.

The next step is for the Tigers to push into top-four contention before eventually targeting a Grand Final berth to appease their long-suffering supporters. 

But Riewoldt was adamant that his side was not looking any further ahead than Friday's training session, refusing to discuss the club's premiership hopes.

"What are we, 20 days into January, and we're already talking about stuff like that?" Riewoldt said. 

"At the moment I'm worrying about tomorrow's running session ... I'm not thinking too far into the future."