RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace last night doubted that Western Bulldogs defender Brian Lake was seriously injured when he left the field and ultimately left the match result in the hands of a more proficient goal kicker in the dying moments of yesterday's drawn match.

While Wallace made his suggestion with a smile, his point about Lake was plain: "I bet you he plays next week."

The Dogs' number one backman had the opportunity to level the scores after taking a mark with 37 seconds remaining in the frantic game before leaving the field clutching his leg.

With Lake ruling himself out of taking the set shot, the ball was handed to Will Minson who duly converted and saved the Bulldogs from a loss.

"If I was watching the game from outside of the arena and not as emotionally involved as what I was at that point in time I reckon I would have had a bit of a chuckle about it," said Wallace.

"Because I reckon if Brian was kicking for his spot in the side he might have got up and had the shot.

"When … it was in Will Minson's hands I knew we were in trouble because he's kicked some pretty good goals in recent times … and I thought he was probably the right man for them to have the ball. I would have rather Brian had it."

Lake told the Bulldogs medical staff he feared he had torn his right hamstring, but in the rooms afterwards the club doctors were hopeful he had just experienced tightness.

Lake will have his leg scanned today.

Minson, who was ruled to be the closest Bulldog player to Lake's pack mark, said he had hoped to get the ball to teammate Lindsay Gilbee — the most accurate kick in his side. But once handed the responsibility, Minson did not let his team down.

"I can't tell you what I was thinking about," he said afterwards.

"I just thought 'kick the goal, stick to my routine, go through the processes and hopefully it will go through'."

Wallace joked that Gilbee had made every attempt to take the shot. "Lindsay Gilbee almost got (a) stitch running from one end of the ground to the other end to try to accept it and some of our blokes tried to shepherd him off," he said.

With the Dogs yet to experience defeat after five outings, Eade said his team should have sealed yesterday's result by half-time such was the regularity of their scoring opportunities.

"But then to be three goals down and show a bit of fight and a bit of ticker was pleasing," Eade said about the rousing fightback.

Wallace said Jake King's decision to concede a point to the opposition with about four minutes remaining yesterday was just one of several mistakes the Tigers would pick over this week.

"I just didn't think we handled those last four minutes as well as what we could have," he said.

"There's probably four or five actions that we'll look at in review from missed opportunities to spoil the ball, to missed tackles, to kicking down the line to stepping back through the goals. There's probably half a dozen of them so to really identify any one think I think is very, very unfair."