SATURDAY'S clash against Fremantle will be an effective yardstick for Richmond coach Damien Hardwick to gauge just how far his team has progressed in the past fortnight.
The Tigers will be gunning for their third win in a row after defeating North Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions with those victories coming on the back of heavy defeats to Collingwood and Hawthorn.
Those mixed results have made Richmond's form and its rate of development as a team difficult to measure over the past month, but Hardwick is confident the picture will be much clearer after the Fremantle game.
"It's another chance for us to measure ourselves against a top four side," Hardwick said from the ME Bank Centre at Punt Road on Friday.
"Freo have been tracking along quite nicely and we've probably been disappointing against Collingwood and Hawthorn, so it's a great challenge for our guys to see how we go.
"It's another opportunity for our guys to test themselves against good players, which is what we're always about.
"It will be a daunting game, but one we're very much looking forward to.
"Confidence in a young group is immeasurable. If they get their tails up you generally don't know what's going to happen, so we're just going to go out there, play the way that we've been playing - there's a few things that we can do better obviously - but from an overall development point-of-view, it's a great stepping stone for us."
Hardwick cited ruck giant Aaron Sandilands and classy onballers Matthew Pavlich and David Mundy as the key obstacles between his team and victory with the coach also impressed with the form of Hayden Ballantyne and former Bomber Kepler Bradley.
He admitted Sandilands would probably dominate at the stoppages with his planning centred around his rucks giving him a contest and his midfield group more intent on taking their cues from the opposition ruckman.
Daniel Jackson comes into the side after serving his one-week ban for striking North's Scott Thompson and Hardwick said he had warned the midfielder to curb his aggression to avoid further suspensions in the future.
"He's just got to take himself out of those situations because it costs him, but it costs us premiership points [as well]," he said.
"Last week Simon Black has about 33 possessions and 10 or 11 clearances and if Dan Jackson plays, that doesn't happen. That could have quite easily have cost us four points. He knows how important he is to us from a playing point-of-view and also a leadership point-of-view.
"He's well aware that it can't happen any more."
The Tigers have beaten Fremantle in four of their past five matches with Freo unable to record a victory at the MCG in their past seven visits.
Although those records appear reason for optimism, Hardwick said Mark Harvey's team is now a completely different prospect to the one that struggled to travel in years past.
