IF YOU'RE looking for evenness in a coach, Richmond's Damien Hardwick is not a bad place to start.

Early in the 2010 season, his first at Punt Road, Hardwick was calmness itself as big loss piled in on big loss. When the Tigers began to win games midway through the season, he presented the same implacable visage.

At the MCG today, Richmond had a goal-for-goal tussle with Fremantle for three quarters before clearing ahead in the last quarter to win by 49 points.

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Hardwick tried not to make too much of the exciting win against a creditable opponent, but if you looked hard during his press conference, there was just a hint of the mouse who found the cheese.

First, he admitted it was a great win. Then he added that it was the best win in his time at the club.

"The great thing from our point of view is we beat a top four side which we haven't been able to do since my time here so it's a great win for us," he said.

Hardwick said the biggest positives from the game were the spread of goalkickers and the fact that Dustin Martin and Brett Deledio overcame quiet starts to make significant contributions as the match wore on.

While Jack Riewoldt did kick four goals in another strong performance at full-forward, Trent Cotchin and Robin Nahas also kicked four and Tyrone Vickery kicked three. In all, the Tigers had 10 goalkickers.

Of Martin and Deledio he said: "They battled through and made a real solid contribution in the last quarter to help get us over the line."

Hardwick was full of praise for the smalls such as Nahas and Jake King, a pair who again were irrepressible in seeking avenues to goal and fighting hard to keep the ball in Richmond's forward line.

"The thing they do well is they compete and win one on one contests," he said.

"The game now, with the substitution rule, is tightening up a little bit, so the contested ball and tackle effectiveness are becoming key indicators — and those guys do that very well.

"Then when the game does open up, those guys are very, very quick; they really get on their bike. We have been very happy with their seasons thus far."

The forwards' energy and willingness were among the reasons the Tigers managed to pick their way through a defensive zone in the first quarter that Hardwick described as impenetrable. The scores were level at quarter-time, 3.2 (20) to 2.8 (20), but only because of Richmond's accuracy when an opportunity arose.

"We went back to school and managed to find our way through it (the zone)," Hardwick said. "Sometimes young sides do struggle with instruction but to their credit they battled on really well."

Scoring, battling, thinking … the coach was entitled to be in a good mood after his team's victory.