RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace believes superstar Matthew Richardson is "playing the best football of his life" after the Tiger powerhouse played another blinder against St Kilda on Saturday night at Telstra Dome.
Richardson booted five goals, claimed 22 disposals and took 13 marks as he gave his all for the Tigers in their dramatic three-point loss to the Saints.
Wallace was full of praise for Richardson, who is set to represent the Dream Team in next Saturday night's Hall of Fame clash against Victoria at the MCG.
"He's going pretty well, isn't he? This week we had to leave him down forward more than what we expected to, just with the fact he was dominant down there," Wallace said in his post-match media conference.
"We just play him where we feel that he is having a bigger impact on the game.
“Even in the third quarter we moved him up onto the wing to get our momentum back going back our way. That's how much impact he is having on it.
"He's playing fantastic footy and he's a very, very frustrated man at the moment, because he's trying to will us over the line, but unfortunately others just haven't been able to come along for the ride."
Wallace said the club was disappointed with the nail-biting loss after young Tiger Jack Riewoldt had a shot at goal after the siren which was unable to go the distance from outside 50m.
"It's always hard to see through the trees when you play in those types of games and come out with superlatives and positives," he said.
"We've been here now, twice in the last three weeks, and been in games where we've had winning chances in both games and really the opportunity to seal the game and in both games we've come away with two points against some pretty good sides.
"So you can look at that a number of ways. We clearly look at it with disappointment."
Wallace said St Kilda had "1000 more games" experience than Richmond, which proved telling in the final result.
"Just little portions of the game, that comes into play," Wallace said.
"They've kicked eight goals to one in 19 minutes of footy and that was the difference between winning and losing the game at the end of the day … in reality it was their experience in the early part of the quarters that probably cost us."
As for Riewoldt's shot at goal and Kelvin Moore’s effort that hit the behind post just moments earlier, Wallace said their efforts would be no less scrutinised than other incidents by other Richmond players throughout the match.
“Every single action in the game has an impact on the result of the game,” he said.
"I don't have anything to say to those guys [Kelvin Moore and Jack Riewoldt] apart from you'd hate to be in their shoes this evening – you feel for them."