RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has heaped praise on his defenders, after his side's 41-point win over Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.

Alex Rance, Troy Chaplin and David Astbury proved vital in the match, combining to keep the three-pronged Hawk attack of Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and David Hale to just one goal.

Rance won the all-important battle with Franklin, keeping him to just 11 disposals.

"Alex has been outstanding," Hardwick said on Saturday.

"I think his first four to five rounds were OK, but I think from there on he's been in outstanding form. He takes the best forward every week. 

“Chaplin's been outstanding also. I think they work very, very well together. They've only been together for a very short period of time. 

“I thought Astbury came in and did the job as well today."

Rance has a good record against Franklin, but admits it is still a daunting task to take on one of the league's superstars.

"I don't think I ever enjoy battles like that with the big scary blokes, but it's certainly nice to be done with the game," Rance said.

The addition of Chaplin to the Tigers defence has impacted the way Rance approaches his football.

"I can't say enough good things about Chappy," he said.

"He's been a fantastic leader. He just came up to me before the game and said, 'Look mate, you just do your job, we'll worry about organizing everything else'. 

"That gave me just a little boost, to know that another bloke has got my back." 

Chaplin says the Tigers learned plenty of lessons from their loss to the Sydney Swans last week.

"Last week we came up against a similar sort of line up," Chaplin told AFL.com.au.

"Rance has always done well on Buddy, and then it was up to myself and Dave Astbury to pick up the next two. 

"We just knew that if we could keep them to a minimum then we were a huge chance to win the game. For them to only contribute one goal was fantastic from our point of view, and something that we can hang our hat on."