RICHMOND managed a rare goalless quarter against Fremantle on Sunday, but coach Damien Hardwick was delighted with the subsequent response from his players.
Hardwick implored his weary men for a strong finish and the Tigers piled on eight goals to Fremantle's nil in the final term to set up the 77-point win.
"We've played three games in 12 or 13 days and the guys were tired, to be fair," he said.
"We probably lacked energy, but credit where credit's due, we challenged them in the last quarter and the pressure went up. We won contested ball, we won tackles, all the stuff we were hoping to do, they did.
"You've got to give them credit, this team, when they get questioned, they respond and then some, and I was really proud of the way they performed.
"I wish that dominant last quarter had been a dominant third quarter, so the game wasn't up for grabs at three-quarter time, but we have been pretty consistent over the course of the year. So, we'll look at it and take it for what it was."
Hardwick said Fremantle's game style based around dominant ruckman Aaron Sandilands forced the Tigers to find a way to win with a different approach while losing the clearances 22-44.
"To be fair, we probably expected to lose the clearances. What did he (Sandilands) have, 25 hit-outs to advantage? But it's probably what you do from that, set up the turnover and from there," Hardwick said.
"The game these days is effectively a turnover-based game, so we always knew that was a strength of ours. Funnily, we still scored more from stoppages. It's just so hard to stop, our guys showed great endeavour in there.
"When you've got a guy like Nat Fyfe. I actually found myself just watching him. He's an incredible player. He took five contested marks in the first half, he was in my opinion by far the most dominant player on the ground. I thought he was sensational.
"We did get beaten in contested ball, a lot off the back of clearances. But I thought our guys' endeavour was good. They're an uncontested side that like to play that way and it was probably a Fremantle-type game.