Last year, the Tigers made the finals for the first time since 2001 year but fell to Carlton in the first week.
The last time they made consecutive finals was in 1974, when they beat North Melbourne in the Grand Final, and 1975, where they lost to the Kangaroos in the preliminary final.
The 1974 premiership was their second in a row after they beat Carlton in the decider in 1973.
With a solid pre-season after players used a Mark Williams-inspired survey to help them understand why they lost to the Blues in the elimination final, the club is dealing with the expectation that they'll make the top eight again.
"There was expectation on us last year as well to make finals so it was obviously pleasing to achieve that, even though we're still disappointed and we learned a lot from that final game," football manager Dan Richardson told SEN on Wednesday morning.
"We embrace that expectation.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with a little bit of pressure on you and putting a bit of pressure on yourselves to perform.
"All we really need to do is focus on that first part of the year, set ourselves up to give ourselves the opportunity to play finals again, but we're confident we're good enough to do that."
The majority of the Tigers' list is back in or close to full training, although a handful of players including Ivan Maric, Jake King and Ricky Petterd are being managed.
Jack Riewoldt (knee and hip), Reece Conca (hamstring) and Chris Knights (knee) are coming back from surgery – Knights from the sickening knee injury he sustained in round seven last year – but are training well now.
Richardson said they were optimistic of having most of the list available for their first NAB Challenge match against Melbourne on February 14, with coach Damien Hardwick keen to play a strong side.
"Like most clubs we've got half a dozen players who have got little niggles who are not necessarily participating in every session, but they're starting to come good," he said.
"Generally speaking, a couple of guys like Reece Conca and Jack had slightly slow starts pre-Christmas but they're starting to come back into it.
"Hopefully we can go into the NAB [Challenge] and lead into the first few games with pretty much a full list, touch wood, but we've got a bit of work to get through and like any club, your fitness staff and your coaching staff are pushing them to the limits to prepare them for the season.
"That's balanced with pushing them to the edge, and I think every club would run the risk of breaking players down but, touch wood, all our staff are doing a great job and we're going OK."
Hardwick told AFL.com.au last week the Tigers wanted to field the strongest team they could in the two pre-season games plus their scheduled practice match against Essendon on March 7 so they could get a feel for how rotations would work under the incoming interchange cap.
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
