Star key forward Jack Riewoldt has identified the rising level of self-belief within Richmond’s playing group as a major factor in the Tigers overcoming an extremely slow start to eventually overpower Carlton in last Thursday night’s 2018 season-opener at the MCG.

Richmond turned an early five goals to nil deficit into a 26-point win by sticking to the process that enabled the team to capture the 2017 premiership, and not being dictated by opposition scoreboard pressure.

“To be honest, it’s probably the biggest growth in this group, that there’s no real focus on the scoreboard,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.

“They had a good run on us . . . but we had some contingency plans and guys really stepped up.

“We just felt that if we could start to try and get our game going the way we wanted it to go, then we could start to swing that momentum.

“It happened late in the first quarter . . . after that it was a bit of an arm wrestle, and then the last quarter was what it was . . .

“So we were a bit slow starting, but I think the whole group started to get that mentality back to team footy post that sort of first 15 minutes.”

Riewoldt was one of the Tigers’ best in the opening round victory, finishing the match with 18 disposals, an equal team-high seven marks, six inside-50s, an equal game-high 13 score involvements, and four goals.