Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says the club's fans will see a new-look team against Carlton on Thursday night but warns that it's going to take some time for the new game style to reap rewards.

Hardwick said the recruitment of new midfielders would enable to Tigers to be more dangerous up forward.

"They'll certainly look different obviously with the addition of (Toby) Nankervis, (Josh) Caddy and (Dion) Prestia," he said. "Three players straight away. (Dan) Butler will play. (Josh) Castagna is a very good chance to play in that as well, so there are players that we haven't sort of seen a lot of before who will come in and play roles.

"So we're really excited about that. We are looking forward to putting on something different that we haven't seen as of last year and those players will certainly help that."

Castagna, who played five games with the Tigers last year, has been upgraded from the rookie list.

The coach said he expected more goals with Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin free to play bigger forward roles.

"Martin and Cotchin will play forward. You know Josh is a bit of a weapon up there as well, together with Nick Vlaustin, we haven't had that for a number of years, ever since the retirements of (Shane) Tuck and (Daniel) Jackson ... So to bring those two players in has really complemented our midfield and allows us to put another weapon up forward at various stages, which we are really excited about.

"Leppa (assistant coach Justin Leppitsch) has done an amount of work with those guys to get an understanding to how it is going to work and how it is going to look ... so that is something that we haven't had last year that we are looking forward to this year. "

Hardwick was effusive in his praise of Carlton, saying the Blues had a dynamic young team that was raw, but developing all the time.

"You look at their side, they are a well-drilled side and while the scoreboard will say otherwise ... there are some things in their game that is really solid. Defensively they are very good behind the ball. They set up very well from a structure point of view. Offensively they will get better as the game goes on. We are very wary of the Blues, when they play their best footy they can beat anyone in the competition, make no doubt about that.

"We are under no illusions that it is going to be tough. Round one, any game is up in the air."