Richmond has set its sights on the final three rounds of the home-and-away season, preferring not to concentrate on its achievement of locking in a finals spot for the first time since 2001.
The Tigers secured their place in the top eight with last Saturday’s victory over the Brisbane Lions, and will spend the remaining rounds of the season preparing for the first week of the finals.
"It's obviously good to know that we will be playing in September. We haven't set a ceiling on where we want to finish, or anything like that,” said star Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt.
“We won't be happy until Round 23, and we know where we finish, and who we play in that first week of the finals.
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"There's definitely a bit of a buzz around the group because there's a lot of guys here who haven't played finals. We want to finish as high as possible and get on a good roll going into September.
“This year, definitely, we've been very confident of where we want to be, and how we want to perform.
"We knocked Fremantle off and Hawthorn, and I think we can be a real contender in September, but we still need to focus on the small things, the game plan.”
Riewoldt claimed the team’s immediate focus was to perform well against a fired-up Carlton this Saturday at the MCG.
"This week against Carlton is a huge game for us. They showed in Round 1 that they're never out of the game,” he said.
“We were 36 points up at three-quarter time and they came back, and we only just pipped them by a goal. So we know they'll be hurting after a loss at the weekend against the ‘Doggies’ and they'll come out firing.''
Immediate future the Tigers’ focus
Richmond has set its sights on the final three rounds of the home-and-away season, preferring not to concentrate on its achievement of locking in a finals spot for the first time since 2001.