JOEL Bowden is back, and he's not about to go away again.

The Richmond dual best-and-fairest spent a month in the VFL before making his triumphant return to the ones, but as a forward who spent some time through the middle, not in his customary role as a running defender.

Coach Terry Wallace said there was no doubt about which level the 29-year-old would be playing at this weekend, as the Tigers face up to Essendon in the 'Dreamtime at the G' match.

"Look, I thought Joel played very well. I thought he was in our best half-a-dozen players last Saturday afternoon, and did his job, so there's no question about where he sits," Wallace said on Wednesday.

"He went back for four weeks to learn a new role, and showed clearly, coming back into the side, that he handled that role very well."

In the last month, the Tigers have lost to the top two teams, drawn with the third, and lost to the Saints, who were widely tipped pre-season to finish in the top two.

Wallace said the team simply had to keep doing the things that would make it successful in the long-term.

"We believe that we've been playing much better football in the last month or so than what we have probably in my time at the club.

"We haven't actually got the results as in four points on the board from some of those efforts, but in the last month we've played against three of the four undefeated sides in the competition and ran them fairly strong, so we believe our form can stand up.

"We understand that we're growing and developing as a team, and we also understand that we've played against the best sides in the competition.

"I think that what we've tried to be strong on is if we continue to do what we've been doing, eventually results will come our way.

"That mightn't mean that at this point in time we are in the top four sides in the AFL, but I think it shows that we're an improving squad, and probably over the next six to eight weeks we've got to show that to ourselves.

"But we know and understand each week you go out there you've got another opposition, and an opposition that's very keen to win as well."