RICHMOND premiership coach Damien Hardwick has paid Essendon the ultimate compliment for its recent form surge, comparing the Bombers to his own Tigers.
Essendon bounced back from a horror four-match losing slide with impressive defeats over Geelong then Greater Western Sydney to re-enter finals calculations.
Not only are the Bombers back to winning ways, but they are leading the competition in 'pressure factor' for the past three rounds and are playing a more offensive style.
That form goes on the line in Saturday night's annual Dreamtime at the 'G clash at the MCG, with the Tigers to regain Dylan Grimes (back) and Jack Riewoldt to play after suffering concussion.
However, Daniel Rioli, who is still making his way back from a long-term foot injury, Bachar Houli (groin) or Dion Prestia (calf) are not ready to play.
"Probably the last three weeks have been noticeable – their ability to spread from contest to contest (and) their pressure has funnily enough actually been high, but it's higher again," Hardwick said.
"I think they're going more forward with the football, (are) prepared to kick the ball longer at various stages as well and they're playing a great brand of footy.
"The way they're playing the game – it looks similar to us, in a way, with the way they go about it, so it's going to be a really good test for us to play against them.
"They're a form team at the moment that has beaten some pretty good sides in Geelong and GWS, and if you look at the KPIs they were probably pretty stiff against Carlton as well."
Richmond is not playing "quite to the level we'd like to be", Hardwick says, but is still a game clear in second place on the ladder.
The Tigers are unlikely to short of motivation for the Dreamtime match, an occasion that honours indigenous people's contribution to the sport and typically draws 80,000-plus fans.
"It is huge, and we are very privileged to be a part of it. 'Sheeds' (AFL legend Kevin Sheedy), as we know, started it many moons ago and it's a fantastic event," Hardwick said.
"We're very fortunate at our club to be part of a lot of big games, but this takes extra significance … you only have to look at the indigenous players we have on our list.
"Shane Edwards is a 200-game player for our footy club, (there's) the significance of Maurice Rioli and what he meant to us, and what we do with our KGI Institute upstairs is really important to the fabric of Richmond.
"It takes pride of place. We have a really good build-up with our week; with indigenous storytelling, we have some guest speakers come in, so we're really privileged to be a part of it."
The Tigers seem primed to finish in the top two, but Hardwick, ever the coach, said his team's focus would remain in four-week blocks, resuming with the Bombers.
"We just want to keep winning obviously, which is an easy thing to say, but we don't really worry about the ladder positions at this stage of the year," he said.
"There are stages where sides are playing with high energy, then there are times where we're probably at the moment, hanging tough but winning at the same time.
"So, we're hoping that will turn around by the time we get a break. I think we're round 14, our break, to make sure we get some energy back and assault the latter half of the season."
