DAMIEN Hardwick was 'pleasantly surprised' with his Tigers after they defeated top-placed Fremantle in Perth on the back of a phenomenal first quarter. 

Hardwick was effusive in his praise of Trent Cotchin, Nick Vlastuin, Shane Edwards, Shaun Grigg, and Ty Vickery after the victory, which catapulted the Tigers into fifth position on the ladder. 

But he saved his biggest compliments for midfielder Dustin Martin.

Click here for Damien Hardwick's full press conference

“He (Martin) was trying to match up Nat Fyfe, who was incredible again tonight. Some of those hit-outs from Sandilands, straight to him. I thought our midfield battled really well. It was a tough, hard-fought game.

“I was really pleased with Dustin’s output and Trent (Cotchin), our captain, led well. I thought Ivan (Maric) toiled manfully against a monster, really. I thought Ivan around the ground tried to work him (Sandilands) as hard as he could. We obviously lost the clearance battle easily, but I thought Ivan around the ground held his own if not won that part of the game.” 

Sandilands broke the VFL/AFL record for hit-outs to advantage against Richmond, having broken the record for hit-outs in a single match against Adelaide last week. 

The Tigers' victory came despite having had only 36 entries into their 50m arc - the smallest number of forward-50 entries by a winning team this season. 

Five talking points: Fremantle v Richmond

Hardwick said Richmond had worked hard to improve its efficiency going forward. 

“It's not often we kick eight goals and it's not often you kick eight goals against Fremantle, so we were pleasantly surprised by that one," the coach said. 

“We controlled the ball really well at those early stages and credit to our forwards for kicking the goals. We kicked 8.1 and we probably haven’t been the most efficient accuracy side going inside 50, so for us to kick 8.1 was a good reward for effort. 

“It's something we've been working on and it's hard to put it down to one game, but it's an area of improvement that we noted from last year that we need to get better at. 

“It's probably taken a little while coming and at various stages our ball use inside 50 has been a little bit inconsistent, but I thought for the majority of the night, we used the ball pretty well.”

The victory was the Tigers’ fourth in a row and leaves them in a good position leading into the bye. They then face West Coast, the Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney. 

Hardwick said the bye had come at a good time for his club, which had 12 players on the injury list. Alex Rance had also received a corked thigh during the game against Fremantle, but had played on through the pain.