Ben De Pedro, 35, live and work in Kalgoorlie Western Australia (from Perth) and has been extremely passionate about the Tigers for more than 20 years

 At the start of the 2010 season a certain commentator (who shall remain nameless) was quoted as saying that "Richmond would field the worst team in AFL history" in the lead up to game 1. Such a bold statement, given the end of season result and the turnaround that Richmond had in the second half of the season. The great minds of the modern game could not predict that.

However, the Richmond faithful got on board with Dimma and the boys, as we expected a period of losing games before reaching any heights, but they surprised us in round 8 by coming dangerously close to beating Hawthorn. That was the first sign that things were coming together. Then, in round 10, the first win against Port Adelaide.

We all know how last season ended, with a few wins that enhanced our position on the ladder - enough to see West Coast cop the wooden spoon (which as a West Australian made this little Yellow and Black duck very happy).

So where to now? With the first two games of the 2011 season down, we found ourselves in a winning position with Carlton in round 1. Unfortunately, we did not get the points, but it has been a massive improvement on previous first round encounters. Round 2 against St. Kilda was an exciting game which ended in a draw, and even though we had not beaten St. Kilda in 13 previous encounters, a draw simply was not good enough for the boys. The looks on their faces after the game said it all.

There is a lot of football commentary on TV and radio. They breakdown games and analyse tactics, and it seems as though a lot of people found this result more than an acceptable effort for Richmond, then talked about the poor performance of the Saints. Personally I believe it takes a good team to make another good team look bad.

Let's start talking about the fantastic effort from the Tigers, the tackling pressure, the rebound from half back with Deledio and Grigg producing outstanding performances, the multiple scorers in the wake of Jack Reiwoldt's concussion with Dustin Martin and Jake King stepping up, Ty Vickery's moving forward was also a success. Not to mention the ability to win clearances with Cotchin, Jackson, and again Martin and Grigg.

With a few more of these performances we'll be hearing about the rise of the tiger and the outstanding effort from Damien Hardwick and the boys.

Even though the game ended as a draw, I was ecstatic at the performance of the team. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to say that not getting a result is how we want to go forward as a club. Dimma summed it up best when he said "It's unacceptable as far as we're concerned. We should have won that ball game.

We probably dominated for the last three quarters and we couldn't get the result". It wasn't the result that got me excited, it was the knowledge that we could nullify a top four team, last year's grand finalists nonetheless. Not only were we able to bring the game down to the wire, we were able to inspire and excite football fans around the country.

Friday night football is held sacred in the AFL, and producing these kinds of results will see Richmond play a lot more of it. The reality is that we could have given up and lost the game, but that wasn't good enough, not for a team that has set high goals and high standards for the future.

Now we are seeing the rise of the tiger, we are being witness to future history, a new dynasty of success for the Richmond Football Club. I am excited to be a member of this club and to see a future success. We are by no means there yet, in fact there is long way to go to achieve premiership success, but every journey has a start and this is ours.