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RICHARD Tambling’s wobbly right-foot pass found Jordan McMahon all alone, 45m out at the Punt Rd End.

It was Round 18, 2009, Richmond versus Melbourne, and in a game that nobody really wanted to win, McMahon went back and drilled a goal after the final siren.

The four-point loss gifted the Demons picks 1 and 2 in the national draft with Richmond’s first selection falling to No.3.

Melbourne opted for Tom Scully and Jack Trengove and Tigers recruiter Francis Jackson pounced on a kid from Castlemaine called Dustin Martin.

“From what I know, Francis loved him (Martin) from a long way out,” Richmond list manager Blair Hartley said yesterday.

“He was obviously powerfully built and had a lot of upside given his exposure to the elite pathway was limited at that stage. He was raw ... but it’s all come out pretty positive in the end.”

Few would have thought it, but the foundations of a premiership team were already laid.

Shane Edwards, Alex Rance, Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt all played in that game against Melbourne in 2009.

They are the only four players on the Tigers list to predate the arrival of coach Damien Hardwick for the 2010 season.

Cotchin, a precocious junior talent once removed from the field in a Vic Metro trial game at Victoria Park because he was too dominant, was taken at pick 2 behind Matthew Kreuzer in the 2007 draft.

Until 2009, Jackson was a one-man band in the Tigers’ horribly under-resourced recruiting department.

“Francis deserves a lot of credit because he’s put in a lot of hours over a number of years and he’s now got two Brownlow Medallists on his resume — there’s not many recruiters around who can stake a claim for that,” Hartley said.

“No one works harder in football and he should be sitting back quite happy with the work he put in.”

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Rance was a diamond snared by Jackson with Richmond’s next selection (pick 18) in the 2007 Cotchin draft.

Riewoldt (pick 13) and Edwards (pick 26) were selected by Jackson the previous season.

Shaun Grigg landed at Punt Rd from Carlton at the end of 2010 in a swap for Andrew Collins, while Bachar Houli was picked up for no cost in the pre-season draft the same year from Essendon.

Defender Dylan Grimes was overlooked by every club in the 2010 national draft and taken by the Tigers in that year’s pre-season draft.

“He had some work to do on his game with some of his offensive work but he’s a fierce competitor and was another great pick by Francis,” Hartley said.

David Astbury arrived in 2009 via pick 35, while first round picks Nick Vlastuin (pick 9, 2012), Daniel Rioli (pick 15, 2015), Brandon Ellis (pick 15, 2011) have all delivered.

Giants hard nut Jacob Townsend became a Tiger in exchange for pick 70 in 2015 and his season ends with an AFL premiership medal and the J.J Liston Trophy as the VFL’s best player.

Kane Lambert was overlooked in six national drafts before the Tigers recruited him at age 23 from Williamstown three years ago.

Another journeyman, Nathan Broad, was a plumber playing WAFL before being drafted with pick 67 in the 2015 draft.

Kamdyn McIntosh was identified by club recruiter Richard Taylor and drafted in 2012 with a pick obtained as part of the Tambling trade to Adelaide.

“Richard really liked his footy and pushed him up but he was a raw kid from Pinjarra who had to learn to live in Melbourne first before he was able to develop as a player,” Hartley said.

Dan Butler was a fourth-round draft pick and Jason Castagna a rookie.

“Jason played predominantly as a backman for the Northern Knights ... he wasn’t always polished but he showed a real desire to compete which we thought as a rookie was worth a go,” he said.

South Australian midfielder Jack Graham, a premiership player in just his fifth game, was taken at pick 53 last year — a selection the Tigers obtained as part of the Caddy trade with Geelong.

The list build was completed in last year’s trade period when the Tigers recruited great mates Josh Caddy and Dion Prestia and ruckman Toby Nankervis from the Swans.

Richmond’s recruiting team includes Matthew Clarke, Luke Williams, Nick Austin, Jackson, Taylor and 12 part-timers.

But Hartley said Saturday’s premiership was the result of years of work across all departments of the club.

“It’s not just one thing — there are a lot of key pillars to a football program,” he said.

“If you haven’t got coaching, development, welfare, data management, fitness and medical programs all humming, you can’t win.

“We’ve got some wonderful people working in all those areas and it turns good players into very good players.

Asked if he always had confidence that the list would deliver a flag, Hartley said: “We faced some challenges stripping it right back and with the expansion clubs coming through.

“We had to look outside the square to be competitive and now we’ve done it.”