RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says this season's finals are as open as he's seen and is bullish about his side's form after confirming its spot in September with Sunday's win over Hawthorn.
The Tigers showed off their attacking prowess with a dominant 61-point win over the Hawks at the MCG, moving past Carlton into seventh, locking in their return to the finals after missing out in 2021.
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After a stutter where Richmond failed to win a run of three close games against Gold Coast, North Melbourne and Fremantle in July, Hardwick's side has won three in a row, piling on 100-plus points in each match to find form at the right time.
"I think it's as open a season as I've seen it," Hardwick said. "I look at a couple of sides, Geelong, in particular, are sitting above, but after that it's relatively even.
"I think it's going to be an outstanding finals campaign. It's what the AFL wants, the evenness of the competition.
"History has shown us along the way you need to be playing your best footy at the right time. We're playing pretty good footy at the moment.
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"There's some bits of our game that we could tidy up today. I was relatively pleased with most parts of our game."
Hardwick said the side had always retained belief it would make the top eight, despite starting the season 2-4 and its July slump.
"I think we always had an internal confidence," he said. "There were stages where we weren't quite playing our best footy but we were learning about ourselves and how our side operates.
"(Qualifying for finals) is a great reward for our footy club. It's probably something we don't celebrate enough as an industry. It's a significant achievement. There's a lot of work to do but it should be celebrated."
Hardwick praised eight-goal forward Tom Lynch, who took his season tally to 55 goals to sit equal third in the Coleman Medal race, having booted 16 goals in the past three games. The Tigers coach pointed to Lynch's injury-free pre-season for his strong year.
"There's a reason key forwards are highly regarded," he said.
"You've got to remember it's the first full pre-season he's had since he's been at our footy club. He's played basically off zero prep the other seasons we've had him. You just see how big and strong he looks in the contest today."
Hardwick said co-captain Dylan Grimes will meet with his surgeon on Wednesday to discuss the timeline on returning from his hamstring injury, while he reiterated three-time Norm Smith medalist Dustin Martin was on track to be available for their first final.
"He trained well. It'll be primarily that first week of finals," Hardwick said about Martin.
"He's just starting to get some work in, get some speed in, some ball handling. We'll take it slow with him. We know what he can do at this time of the year. It's important we get him right."
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell conceded his side was outclassed by Richmond, which he believes will be "formidable" come finals time.
"I just thought we couldn't handle their forward potency and we couldn't lock it in our front end either," he said.
"I think they're playing some good footy. They're winning a lot of statistics over the last four to six weeks. I think they're going to be formidable in the next few weeks as well."
Mitchell was also hopeful off-contract forward Jack Gunston, who booted two goals on Sunday, would be at the club in 2023 amid interest from rival clubs.
"I hope so," he said. "He's a really important player for us.
"I have regular chats with him. I'm his coach but I'm also his premiership teammate and friend, so we talk fairly regularly.
"I think we've got 13 players out of contract so there's conversations going on all over the place. We've been chatting to him regularly and we'll continue to do so but nothing will come out over the coming days."
