Former Richmond great Matthew Richardson says the Tigers must take down a premiership contender Jon Ralph
Herald Sun
June 17, 2013 RICHMOND legend Matthew Richardson has challenged the surging Tigers to take down a premiership contender as they close in on their first finals campaign in a dozen years.
The 7-4 Tigers now have winnable games against the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda, and also face both expansion sides as well as struggling Brisbane in the run to September.
Clinching those games would put the Tigers into September for the first time since 2001, but the Tigers have been found wanting this year when playing the league's dominant sides.
Last year they knocked over both Grand Finalists in Hawthorn and Sydney despite missing September, and Richardson believes they are capable of entering the finals with real momentum.
"Can they beat Essendon, can they beat Carlton when they play them again? Can they knock off the team above them and go into the finals with a bit of belief that they can do that? They are the questions yet to be answered,'' he said yesterday.
"They will beat the teams they should and if they do that, they will play finals, you would think they will have 13 wins and that will get you in, but it would be good if they showed they could match it with one of those top four to six teams in the run home.''
The Tigers stormed away from Adelaide, then found the presence to steady when the Crows closed to within three goals in the final term.
According to captain Trent Cochin, much of the credit belongs to an emphasis on defence that has the Tigers allowing only 87 points a game.
That figure is just 75 points conceded in the last month, with Cotchin telling 3AW the defensive edge was a huge focus despite criticism of Richmond's tackling statistics.
"Obviously we have been relatively happy with our performance over the last couple of weeks. It's good to get back to playing some pretty good offence, but more importantly we have been keeping the opposition to relatively low scores, which is exactly what we are striving for each week.
"Chappy (Troy Chaplin) hasn't been there for that long but he's got a very mature head on his shoulders and along with the that we have guys who have played a lot of footy together now (in the backline) and they understand how they all tick.
"The best thing for us as a midfield and forward line is we can back them all in one-on-one and we know they will win or half the contest and then we get get a loose man back there and get our offence going from there. It is a credit to those guys they have stood up.''
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