With scores level at the final siren of Thursday night's season opener between Richmond and Carlton, the Tigers have now played in the past three AFL draws, Jack Riewoldt now holds the record for most draws played in (a whopping eight), and the Blues' last three matches have been decided by a cumulative six points.

Despite the points being shared, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was pleased with aspects of his side's performance, coming from behind in the final 17 seconds via a Tom Lynch mark and goal.

"The scoreboard dictates the outcome, but I thought it looked like a Richmond game. I thought we had them pinned in the front half for the vast majority, but the reality is, we just lacked polish," Hardwick said.

"We had seven missed shots on goal, we had four on the full, we had a few sodas (missed) from in front – I'll look at how the game looked overall, but the polish I think is the one thing we can take out that we can certainly improve.

"What we were really happy with tonight was our system and our defence, we kept them to a really manageable score, we just couldn't capitalise when we wanted to."

Lynch was the hero on Thursday night after having the opportunity to seal an elimination final win last year, his shot back then deemed to have clipped the post.

"He probably came into the game as we knew he would. He had three quarters of a game last week, and as the game progressed, he got a lot better," Hardwick said.

"I thought he looked strong, gave a good contest. You look behind the ball, guys like Weitering, Young are really good defenders, McGovern as well, so we certainly had our hands full. I thought he battled really well.

"I was hoping (he'd convert). I was (confident), I think he missed one earlier or it was on the full, but he's generally a pretty good shot at goal. I was happy with that one. We had a couple of stinkers along the way, but sometimes you have to make your own luck.

"At least it didn't hit the post."