Richmond fans may have to thank Dion Prestia for the one-point triumph over Hawthorn, after the senior midfielder took over a meeting last week to run through plays in tight game scenarios.
Interim Tigers coach Andrew McQualter revealed the three-time premiership midfielder had flagged he wanted to reiterate what the team should do when the game is on the line – a situation which has haunted Richmond time and time again over the past two seasons.
"All credit goes to the players for that (close win). I want to single out Dion Prestia. Last week, he got the group together, and he took scenarios. It's a credit to our leaders in getting it done," McQualter said.
"We've spoken about it before, late in games, it's about moments and people getting things done in critical moments. The leadership he's shown – amidst some of our other leaders – we were able to get the result because of it.
"We have little sessions planned for things we want to achieve, and Dion put his hand up and said, 'I want to nail this'. He took control of it and worked with the coaches to get the scenarios right, there were things we wanted.
"But it just shows, most of it comes from the players, which is great."
Substitute Matt Coulthard provided some much-needed spark in his first game, coming on in the third quarter and bringing some zing to the half-forward line, setting up two fourth-quarter goals.
"I'm just rapt for him. They took (forward Denver) Grainger-Barras off, so we took (defender Tylar) Young out of the game as a tactical substitution.
"Matty showed us what we've seen at VFL in the past five weeks. His run and work-rate, he really connected our forwards a few times. He really gave our players some energy coming on, as well."
