TERRY Wallace could have gone with a grim-faced "we blew it" line after Richmond's four-goal lead evaporated into a nail-biting draw with the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome yesterday.

Fortunately, the Tigers' coach isn't a sourpuss, but is a reasonably astute amateur psychologist. Of course, two match points instead of what looked a certain four minutes earlier felt temporarily like a loss. But in big-picture terms, this was still very much a major victory.

There was plenty of scepticism about the Tigers' big win at Subiaco last week against Fremantle, and rightly so. Too many times, we've seen Richmond pull off a surprise victory, only to back it up with more of the dross we've become used to.

No matter how impressive was that win over in the West, it had to be followed up with at worst an ultra-competitive performance against one of the AFL's three unbeaten sides for the Tigers to start clawing back some credibility. Against the Dogs, it was.

Yes, Richmond probably should have held on to what was a four-goal lead with 14 minutes of the final term elapsed. No, Jake King probably shouldn't have conceded a rushed behind 27½ minutes in to make a 19-point margin into three straight kicks. Yes, the Tigers could have done a little more to close down the Bulldogs' run as Daniel Cross, Robert Murphy and finally Will Minson goaled to tie the scores.

But this was another terrific performance by Terry Wallace's team. Significantly, for a second week in a row, it was one founded upon run and attack, rather than that cliched old "Tiger tough, eat 'em alive" sort of stuff that has been the predominant theme of most of their relatively scarce victories these past couple of decades.

You wouldn't have given two bob last year for Richmond's chances of matching the running machine that is the Western Bulldogs, perhaps not even a few weeks ago. But something really seems to have clicked with these players, and it's about more than the now well-documented move of Matthew Richardson to a wing.

The Tigers took on the Dockers on the spaces of Subiaco last Sunday. Yesterday, they aggressively pursued victory again with a fast and flowing running game, underscored by the stats for running bounces: 42 to the Tigers, only 12 for the Bulldogs.

Much scorn has been heaped upon the Tigers' recruiting, but there will be a lot less of that should the pattern of the past fortnight continue, for it was the younger Richmond types who helped set the tone.

Matt White was a livewire, full of pace and daring. His running goal in the second term and cool-headed pass to Nathan Brown for another in the final quarter typical of his game. Shane Edwards looked dangerous and contributed 2.2, Jack Riewoldt booted three goals and presented a genuine forward-line threat, likewise Mitch Morton, who kicked two and whose dive into a pack and handball out to Troy Simmonds created what should have been this game's winning goal.

Richard Tambling has copped a caning as the most visible face of Richmond's recent drafting, but he impressed for a second week in a row, while the less spectacular looking likes of Kelvin Moore and Will Thursfield in defence are continuing to improve.

Three-and-a-half wins from five games, eighth spot on the ladder: it's a far healthier prognosis than even the most optimistic Tiger folk would have been bargaining on a few weeks back. And light years from the certain wooden spoon many of us were predicting back in March.

There's a pretty tough road to negotiate over the next three weeks — Hawthorn, St Kilda and Geelong — but on current form, the Tigers won't be a pushover in any of those engagements. And if the Tigers jag an unlikely win, we will have to completely revise what seemed this season's most predictable plot.