Eleventh-placed Richmond was relentless all day, refusing to buckle to the second-placed Hawks, and produced a four-quarter effort for their best win of the season.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace said it was a significant win on a multitude of levels.
"Pretty important – I think from a self-belief point of view it's important for our guys to know that they can compete with sides that have been right up there for the entire year," he said.
"I think also from a direction point of view, as much as I can sit here and say I believe in our younger group of players and that I think we're very even in a group of players coming through, for them to actually see that themselves ...
"Even guys who are playing at Coburg at the moment – a young Alex Rance who goes to that game, he sort of says: 'Well, I'm not breaking into the side at the moment, but when I do break into the side it might be not a bad side to be a part of'.
"So I think all those sorts of things probably help us sell the message to ourselves that we've been trying to portray right along the way."
The Tigers come up against a wildly-fluctuating Fremantle side this weekend, and Wallace said the side could be further strengthened with the return of a couple of very important cogs.
Nathan Brown and Nathan Foley both missed the match, but are still possibilities for Saturday afternoon's clash.
"They're both still in calculations. Nathan's (Foley) probably done a little bit more today in our skills session, from a running point of view, than Browny did. Browny was still stationary today, but it's only early in the week.
"We'll give both those boys an opportunity to come up later in the week.
"I'd sort of say that Nathan Foley's ahead of Nathan Brown at the minute, but we'll give both the opportunity later in the week."
