Richmond and West Coast battled in a heavyweight clash on Sunday afternoon, with the Tigers emerging the winners by six points.
The Eagles got off to a flying start, booting seven goals to three in the first term and getting out to a 29-point lead.
Nick Riewoldt believes Richmond passed another huge test on the weekend.
“They asked the question of Richmond straight away. We haven’t seen them challenged like that and we haven’t seen anyone score like that on Richmond this year,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“They answered a big question from then on. What Richmond showed yesterday is that they can take a punch.
“They can take a punch straight in the mouth. West Coast came out, they gave them their best shot and after quarter time, for the next 60 minutes, it was a complete domination.”
The Tigers kicked five goals to two across the second and third quarters as heavy rain fell on the MCG and Riewoldt believes they completely shut down the reigning premiers.
“They just starved West Coast of opportunities … in the first quarter they had 17 inside 50s and kicked seven goals, they were very, very efficient,” he said.
“They only had 27 more (inside 50s) opportunities for the rest of the game. A lot of those came in the last quarter as well late in the contest.
“Richmond’s ability to set up that wall across half forward and just keep repeat inside 50 after repeat inside 50.
“They had that plus they had the deep, deep sweeper in Dylan Grimes for the majority of the game, and West Coast did not look like they could score.”
West Coast controlled the game before the rain started to fall, but Riewoldt still thinks the Tigers will be the team to beat, even in pristine conditions.
“I still think Richmond because I think less can go wrong. That’s why I’ve been big on them. They are doing something that no one else in the competition is doing and they are making other teams look pretty ordinary,” he said.
“They made West Coast for a period of time look ordinary.
“That mechanism where they drop that deep sweeper, and they’re happy to allow an outnumber in any other part of the ground because if you win the footy, you’ve still got that player, usually Dylan Grimes, sitting 80m behind the footy.”