After sitting at 3-10, the Tigers have won their past six games, and are now just four points out of the top eight.

 

While it's unlikely they will make finals with a tough final three games, including two away matches against Adelaide and the Sydney Swans, the club's stunning turnaround has been a big talking point.

 

Hardwick declared the Tigers were now playing at a higher standard than their best in 2013 - the year they ended a 12-year drought to reach the finals. 

 

"I think [we are better than last year], it's probably a more consistent brand of footy," Hardwick said after the game.

 

"You look at various stages when sides got jumps on us at various stages last year we probably didn't handle it very well. Essendon came hard [tonight], they managed to kick the first two goals of the third quarter but we managed to rectify that.

 

"The pleasing thing from our point of view is that we've got a number of guys that can now win that contested ball. [Anthony] Miles is a huge addition, Brett Deledio has become good in that area, Dustin Martin, and all these types of players."

 

Since round 15, Richmond has gone from No.11 in the competition for contested ball differential to first, and again it showed on Friday night.

 

Hardwick said it was frustrating the Tigers hadn’t been able to turnaround their season until now.

 

"We knew what was going wrong it just took a bit of a lag to fix it which was disappointing," Hardwick said.

 

"You've got to remember we didn't lose a lot of games by a lot I think we lost six games by under three goals, which is a story. We should have beaten sides that we didn't and didn’t take our chances when they presented so we only have ourselves to blame."

 

The Tigers were hit with injuries early in the season to key players Deledio, ruckman Ivan Maric and defender Alex Rance and failed to fire without their leadership.

 

"Every side gets injuries but we didn't handle them well," Hardwick said.

 

"A lot of those guys that were out injured were our leaders, so we always knew we'd be a better side when those guys came back. We were really disappointed that we didn't perform when we needed our players to stand up."

 

The Tigers face Adelaide next Saturday night at Adelaide Oval in what will likely be a mini-elimination final for both clubs.