YOU HAVE to love it when a plan comes together.

The Tigers called a closed training session during the week to work out their gameplan – to play Matthew Richardson on a wing and to outrun Fremantle – and it worked a treat.

The Tigers amassed an amazing 151 possessions more than the Dockers (426-275) and ran the ball superbly, with Richardson gaining 25 touches, including 15 marks along with four goals.

The veteran forward’s shift to the wing was planned as early as Monday, with the Richmond match committee preparing for a tall Freo line-up and deciding to combat it by being smaller, faster and smarter.

Coach Terry Wallace said the move of Richardson was about more than simply winning round four in 2008.

"Matthew's situation was something we planned for at a lockout session – which we very rarely do – early in the week, and structured up to play Matthew on a wing," Wallace said after the match.

 "As much as it was about that they would plan for him to play forward, it was also about our own future. Matthew is 33, and he's playing fantastic, and he did so again today, but we've also got to find out if we've got key-position players who can hold down positions for the future of the footy club.

"It's not always easy to do that when a team becomes very one-dimensional and we're so used to going to Matthew. We asked him if he could take up the challenge of another role and offer up a different forward structure, and look, he took up the challenge, which I admire him for. It's not very easy to do when you've done one role for the whole of your life and someone comes and tells you you've have to play on a wing when you're 15 years into a campaign, but I thought he did his job fantastic and the rest fitted into place.

"I said to the guys before the game we wanted to kick to targets, not reputations, and sometimes that doesn't happen in games of footy.

"I thought in that part of the game, we used the 22 that we brought over as well as I've seen us."

Wallace said the match committee clearly had a different plan to Fremantle’s for playing Subiaco Oval ‘s vast expanses.

"We chose a running side, and we just structured up what we thought was the right way to go, playing on a big ground. I must say, I walked out during the pre-match warm-up and was quite surprised how big their side is. It's a massive, massive, massive team.

"We spoke to our guys, we came back in and said, 'It's got to be the giants versus the runners', and that was the way that we basically set up and spoke to the players about that as a structure.

"On this ground, normally you would think running was the way to go."