Six weeks ago, this was not a list that had been patched up to rescue the club from danger. It was not a list pieced together with just enough Moneyball retreads to keep the ravenous Tiger from eating its own.

This was not a list the club thought they had built to only get them this far. It was a list the club felt was readying to win a final this year. It was not a premiership list yet but it was closing on being one, we were assured.

At the end of the year the club asked itself whether Damien Hardwick was the man to take them the next step. They decided he was. The review was predicated on a belief the team was ready to go that next step. If Richmond felt it was a list that was anything other than ready to advance, more should have been done in trading, drafting and messaging.

Richmond's problems at the moment are manifold. Deficiencies in their playing list are a significant one. It sounded thin to talk now after three years of finals and the selling of hope that the rebuild was desperately contrived.

Then president Gary March and chief executive Brendon Gale, who was there from the start of the rebuilding of the club, spoke in 2010 of a patient long-term strategy, not of a concern to placate impatient fans.

The 3-0-75 plan was a road map to righting the entire club and putting it on a path to sustained success – wipe out debt, build membership and regularly play finals in the first five years. The addendum was that three flags would hopefully follow within 10 years if the club was to achieve its goal of returning to greatness. Good clubs won one flag but great ones won three. Richmond had planned for greatness not for … well, this.

Richmond are correct in asserting that they suffered from the arrival of the expansion clubs. No club was hurt more than Richmond. The win by GWS over Hawthorn at the weekend only reinforced what Richmond was denied. Players Richmond might have had access to but went north instead are reaching their peak.

Richmond should have got pick two in the 2010 draft but got pick six instead after Gold Coast had their turns. That they took Reece Conca instead of Tom Lynch, Dyson Heppell or Jack Darling falls on them, and all of the clubs who bypassed these players. Conca is not as good as these players, but his run is something the Tigers desperately miss.

In 2011 Richmond kept their first pick but still GWS had 11 selections before the Tigers got their first. Instead of pick 4 Richmond had pick 15. They took Brandon Ellis – who is coming on as a player – but might otherwise have been able to pick Chad Wingard, Toby Greene or Devon Smith. That smarts.

In bringing in older players Richmond have kept early draft picks. Those picks have not been as early as they should have been but they kept them. The players they chose have not all been right – no clubs' are – but they went to the draft. Nick Vlastuin showed a lot last year but has struggled this year before injury. Ben Lennon is not in the side.

Few of the older top-ups cost Richmond in draft terms. Shaun Grigg was traded for Andrew Collins, who is playing in the Loddon Valley. Bachar Houli was a pre-season draft pick. Ivan Maric was traded for pick 37. Ricky Petterd was a rookie, Troy Chaplin and Chris Knights were free agents.

The one to make them wince was the Shaun Hampson trade. It looked good on paper – an athletic ruck who could go forward – but he had injuries, doesn't mark the ball around the ground nor have an impact forward. That he was brought in for pick 28 which was on-traded and that pick eventually became rising star Lewis Taylor (even if it was after compensation picks) is embarrassing for Richmond ... and Carlton.

Richmond have known the deficiencies in their list but have been unable to source the players to fix them through the draft or trades.  No ready-to-go ruck was brought in over the summer.

In recent off-seasons they chased Jack Trengove, David Armitage, Stephen Motlop, Dan Hannebery and last year Adam Treloar but for various reasons did not land them. They got Chris Yarran last year but he is yet to be sighted. Six weeks ago it was not a patched-up list but it definitely now needs patching – or more – to finally get where the roadmap was sending them.