Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has hailed Collingwood as their best AFL opposition so far this season after the reigning premiers' 43-point win.
The Tigers kicked half their goals in the last quarter on Sunday at the MCG, cracking Collingwood in the last quarter and winning 16.17 (113) to 10.10 (70).
Hardwick's assessment will raise eyebrows at Adelaide, given the losing grand finalists are the only team to have beaten Richmond after six rounds.
"I thought they're the best side we've played this year," Hardwick said.
"(The margin) was quite flattering for us - it was probably a three-to-four (goal) ball game.
"I was very proud of our players - it was very much a grind for three quarters."
Collingwood were still a chance with 10 minutes left in the match.
Tom Phillips, one of the Magpies' best, was running into an open goal and the margin was only 19 points when he slipped over.
Richmond roared down the other end to kick a goal and that proved the end of the contest.
Billed as the biggest game between these two teams since the 1980 grand final, the clash lived up to the hype.
But Collingwood paid a high price, losing key forward Ben Reid to an achilles injury and midfielder James Aish to a PCL knee injury.
Given Reid's shocking history of soft-tissue injuries, coach Nathan Buckley had every right to be worried.
"I don't like the sound of that," he said.
Hardwick also did not like the AFL's vexed score review, with a goal to Josh Caddy reversed in the second term and another to Jack Riewoldt in the last quarter also ruled a behind.
"I still can't figure them out," Hardwick said.
"We're looking at fingernails, for God's sake ... it takes too long."
Overall, Richmond reaffirmed their status as the AFL's masters of manic pressure, eventually cracking them in the last 40 minutes.
"Today's a loss, but it probably gives us some form of reinforcement that we can stand up in some pretty fierce pressure and put some pretty fierce pressure on an opposition," Buckley said.
"We just weren't able to do it well enough, for long enough."
Buckley said losing one interchange rotation with Aish's injury in the third term was no excuse, despite the very short turnaround from Anzac Day.
Collingwood forward Mason Cox and ruckman Brodie Grundy fired early, but critically their influence waned considerably in the second half.
Asked what to do about Cox, the beanpole American, Hardwick joked "get a chainsaw and cut his legs off".
More seriously, he praised defender David Astbury for adjusting how he played on Cox.
Hardwick also heaped praise on ruckman Toby Nankervis, who eventually beat Grundy.
"I know people speak about the Gawns and the Goldsteins and Grundy, (but) I'm pumped we got our bloke," Hardwick said of their Sydney recruit.
Richmond captain Trent Cotchin was best afield and Magpies star Adam Treloar had 42 disposals, while Caddy kicked four goals.
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