The club announced last week key recruits Jordan Harper and Lachie Harper would return for another year at Moon Oval, with skipper Nathan Marrone also re-signing.
Will Hamilton, Hamish Hooppell and Nathan McCarty join the long list of re-signings, as do Mitch Bright, Nick O’Connor, Andy Henderson and Sean Williams.
Several young players also feature on the list, with Adam McPhee, Grant Fuller, Charles Ward, Blake Evans and Nathan Kay returning, as are Fraser Cleary, Joe Hamilton, Kyle Waters and Seamus Henderson.
Playing coach Steve Stroobants said it was an exciting prospect to get the core of the group to recommit.
“Once the season finished up it was a real priority for us to get a few of the young guys and our leaders at the club committed and keen again,” he said.
“It means we can plan for our pre-season and plan for the year going forward from there.”
With expectations high last pre-season, the Tigers recovered from a slow start to their season to get back into the finals hunt before the season was ultimately abandoned due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Stroobants said another pre-season would help iron out the inconsistency in his team’s quarter-by-quarter performances.
“I think it’s about more maturity and consistency during football games,” he said.
“A lot of times this year we were in the games for three quarters of it but didn’t seem to be able to hold on for that extra 20 to 30 minutes where teams were able to score pretty heavily against us.
“We think with another pre-season and guys getting a year older that will come into our game.”
Stroobants remains hopeful of fewer interruptions going forward.
“It’s all falling in place, and it should take another month or so to get it all nutted out,” he said.
“We’ll continue to work on some more re-signing and some new recruits ... that we think may help us take the next step.”
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