Richmond interim coach Andrew McQualter called the first quarter-and-a-half of Thursday night's win over Sydney "pretty ordinary", but was thrilled with the turnaround after being thumped by Brisbane last week.

"Probably after the 15-minute mark of the second quarter, I thought we were really able to get the game on our terms and the second half, we were able to build our pressure game and own some territory," he said.

"They're a proud group, our players, and last week was disappointing. We started a little disappointing tonight, but to be able to fight through that shows great leadership from our playing group, and that was most pleasing tonight.

"We've obviously had some challenges late in games over the past couple of years, so we've put a fair bit of work into that space. Ultimately – and I've said this before – it's about leaders and people standing up in the final moments."

McQualter was non-committal about Toby Nankervis' report and praised the influence of his co-captain, who had 32 hitouts, 18 disposals and a goal.

"That's been Toby's greatest strength for a long period of time, his ability to get after the ball and the opposition," McQualter said.

"Whatever comes of it comes, but we wouldn't change Toby for the world."

Nick Vlastuin took a crucial one-handed mark and converted the goal in a rare foray forward just before three-quarter time, with McQualter joking the intercept defender had gotten lost.

"No, Sydney have done that to us quite a few times in the past, chucked the extra player behind the ball. And just the coaching group, we came up with the decision to man it up this week, a bit of a different method than we've done in the past," he said.

"Nick's such a good player, he's so valuable wherever we put him, he was able to take that mark and kick the goal, which was good timing for us."