Richmond VFL coach Tim Clarke believes that the Tigers played their best football of the season, in the stunning come-from-behind victory over Geelong on Saturday night at Simonds Stadium.

The four-point victory came on the back of wins in several key areas, including contested ball, clearances and tackling.

Despite a slow start and inaccurate conversion early, the Tigers slammed home five-straight goals in the third term to overcome a 26-point deficit and notch their fifth win of the season.

“It was a really pleasing performance from our guys,” Clarke told Roar Vision.

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“All the stats were in our favour - it showed that we were competing like we wanted our boys to do. It’s just that we couldn’t hit the scoreboard where we wanted to and that gave Geelong the start they needed.”

“But the fight the boys showed, especially later in the game, to come back, get in front and then hang on, was as good as we’ve seen this season.”

Clarke said the character his side showed is always encouraged and prioritised at Tigerland, as is winning the contested ball, which the Tigers did against the Cats.

“I think there were 159 contested [possessions] and we ended up winning by 27 or something, which is a massive amount … to win that area of the game is something that we’ve struggled with in the last three or four weeks, against the bigger sides,” Clarke said.

Watch the match highlights of Richmond’s four-point VFL win over Geelong

“We pride ourselves on winning contested ball at this footy club and if we can do that and get the ball into our forward line, at the moment we’ve got some big targets there, it goes a long way towards winning the game.”

Richmond will look to continue its strong form and notch its third straight win when they take on ladder-leaders Port Melbourne in a fortnight’s time.

Clarke is confident the 12th-placed Tigers can make finals, but admits it will be challenge.

“We’re four to six points off the teams that are hovering around seventh or eighth and we know that we have to win the last five games. We’ve got a huge game coming up against Port Melbourne and then three games against teams that are on our level,” he said.

“We honestly believe that we can win them. If we play anything like we did on the weekend with the contested ball, we will beat those teams.”