With a dramatic draw against North Melbourne on Sunday, Richmond confirmed a top-four spot and a maiden finals berth.
Prior to the current season of AFLW, the Tigers had won a total of six games from 25 starts, and back-to-back games just once.
But they now haven't experienced a loss in eight weeks. They can also boast the fact that they are the only side to have beaten ladder-leaders Brisbane this season.
In order to achieve the club's most-successful season to date, the Tigers have had to make very specific player recruitment decisions, play team-first footy and throw in a little bit of chaos to the mix.
Player recruitment
Richmond's list has undergone significant change since its entry into the competition in 2020.
Just 11 players who appeared for the Tigers in their first season remain on the list now.
Recent off-seasons have seen them add talent through the middle — namely through Ellie McKenzie and Sarah Hosking — and, with several other recruits, they've added further depth in more roles.
No off-season has been more significant for Richmond than the most recent, however, as it has brought in key role players crucial to the current run of success.
Grace Egan has joined a now-damaging midfield group and, in her return to the Tigers — for whom she played VFLW footy in 2019 — has helped make star Monique Conti an even-more-damaging player.
Libby Graham was headhunted from Greater Western Sydney as a key defensive replacement for the currently inactive Harriet Corder, who is watching from the sidelines while rehabbing an ACL rupture.
And Eilish Sheerin — recruited out of a local Sydney league — has made her mark as the best intercepting player in the competition after just 10 games.
Team-first footy
Over seasons five and six, Brisbane set the standard for group buy-in, leading the competition for one-percenters and team-first acts.
Richmond has taken a leaf out of the Lions' book and increased its focus on those one-percenters: spoils, smothers, knock-ons, and shepherds.
Averaging 29.7 one-percenters per game, the Tigers sit third in the competition this season.
New recruit Graham is leading the way in that respect down back, with 51 one-percenters for the season — sitting second overall in the competition as a whole — with draftee Sheerin next in line.
Thanks to those one-percenters, Richmond has added an element of chaos to its game, which makes it unpredictable and particularly difficult to get control against.
A desperate defence
Teams are finding it especially difficult to score against the Tigers, with the side conceding an average of just 26.2 inside-50s and 21.7 points against.
The relentless attitude of the back line, that goes along with their team-first attitude, has seen Richmond concede a goal from just 10.7 per cent of inside-50s conceded, the lowest in the competition's history.
Through pressure and desperation, Richmond's defensive line has limited the number of shots on goal that teams have been able to generate, even when close to goal, and when teams are able to take a shot, their accuracy is impacted by said pressure.
Seven of Richmond's 10 opponents throughout the home-and-away season produced a lower goal accuracy against the Tigers than they did for the rest of the season. It is a similar case for opponents' scoring efficiency and shots on goal generated.
It is not only in the defensive 50 that the Tigers are utilising this desperate, pressured game style.
Making use of it higher up the field is forcing opponents into poor forward entries, helping the back line's efforts, but also taking away any semblance of control that opponents work to find around the field.
On average, teams are taking fewer marks against Richmond and hitting fewer targets in the process, inviting further pressure, and allowing those small acts — the smothers, spoils, shepherds and knock-ons — to play a significant role in games.
In particular, Brisbane was held to just 36 marks against the Tigers, well below its average of 46.8 marks per game in each of its other nine games for the season, and the biggest discrepancy was GWS, who found just 26 marks against Richmond, -16.4 compared to its other match-ups for the season.
In partnership with this, six sides registered a lower disposal efficiency against Richmond than they did in their other games.
Through the use of pressure and one-percenters, Richmond has added an element of chaos to its games and, with that, unpredictability has taken away much of the clean, considered ball use opponents aim to bring.
All this has seen the Tigers make their first-ever finals series and will no doubt be what makes their finals an interesting watch.
