Not too radical, you might think, but with the Tigers having a percentage of less than 50 this season - they've kicked 52 goals and given up 110 in six rounds (the Saints have given up just 50) - and having had the leakiest defence in 2009, it's clearly an idea whose time has come.
The Tigers sacked Terry Wallace midway through 2009 and installed assistant Jade Rawlings to guide the team through the rest of the year, and then snapped up Hawthorn assistant coach Damien Hardwick to rebuild the team.
Hardwick cleaned out both the playing and coaching ranks, and one of the new arrivals was defensive champion Justin Leppitsch, who was the cornerstone of the Brisbane Lions backline when they powered to a hat-trick of flags from 2001-03.
Thursfield said the arrival of the experienced redhead had been a boon for the club.
"Big Leppa - he knows a lot about defending, which is good for us, because in the past we've been taught more how to attack," he told richmondfc.com.au.
"He's teaching us a lot about spoiling, the positioning of the body and things like that.
"He's a good teacher, and he enjoys doing it as well, so he's a pretty valuable addition."
Thursfield said Leppitsch had a good approach for working with the group he had at the Tigers.
"He's pretty light-hearted and he likes getting out there with the boots on and being involved himself, which is good because he's a big, strong man.
"When playing on him you just have to get him moving because he's lost a bit of pace, but he's a big immovable object if you let him stand still.
"He doesn't like to run around too much, Leppa."
The senior coach, possibly not surprisingly, is cut from the same cloth, with a strong teaching directive.
"He's [Hardwick] going really well - we've got a clear message as to how we want to play and we train that way.
"Every time we go out there to train we do things the way we want to play.
"You would have seen it in patches, but it's just a matter of sustaining it over the course of a game."
The 24-year-old said the new coach's positive attitude helped a lot.
Hardwick promised to bring a simplified game style to the Tigers, and Thursfield said the side was getting their heads around the changes.
"It's becoming more natural now, but definitely at first we had a bit of trouble getting used to it, because we were used to the way we'd been trying to play the last four or five years.
"So at first it was tough, but now it's definitely becoming more natural.
"He's a very positive man, even in light of how we've been going.
"Every time we review a match he likes to point out a lot of positive stuff we're doing, but he is also very harsh when we go outside the game plan."
