Having bolstered their list with mature-age recruits Troy Chaplin and Chris Knights, the Tigers are being widely tipped to make the finals for only the third time since 1982.
"We're just excited," Riewoldt told AFL.com.au during an appearance at the Cadbury Super 9s at Skoda Stadium in western Sydney on Saturday.
"We've had some great additions to our football club, and the football staff off-field has done an excellent job to get those players along.
"I'm excited for the NAB Cup, which is coming up soon, but more importantly round one against Carlton in late March, which is when it all gets started.
"I think we can put a good season together this year and hopefully show our fans what we're made of, and get a few wins for them, too."
Richmond defeated grand finalists the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn last year, yet the Tigers finished 12th after suffering a number of narrow defeats in the second half of the season.
The most gut-wrenching of those losses came against Gold Coast in Cairns, when Suns star Karmichael Hunt broke the Tigers' hearts by kicking the winning goal after the siren.
Nevertheless, Riewoldt prefers to toe the party line when asked about Richmond's travails at Cazaly's Stadium, a venue where the club has played two home games and lost both of them to the Suns.
"We are happy with the partnership we've got with Cairns," Riewoldt said.
"Obviously it's been great for our football club to go up to Far North Queensland and grow our club and develop the culture of our club up there.
"We'll be up there again this year and hopefully we can break the hoodoo and beat [the] Suns.
"I think we're the only [team] to not have won against them and it's something that we want to rectify.
"It's another challenge that we're looking forward to and hopefully the youth of our group and the guys that we've added can make sure we're able to do that."
The Tigers begin their NAB Cup campaign with round one matches against North Melbourne and Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on February 22.
