Get around him! Tiger teammates surround key forward Tom Lynch after one of his five goals. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Richmond’s late-season resurgence had already created a sizeable bandwagon prior to Friday night’s big clash with Collingwood for a top-four spot.

You certainly won’t find any room on it now given how impressively the Tigers dispensed with the Magpies on a wet and slippery MCG.

If they’re not already, they’ll be flag favourites by the end of the weekend. And if the Tigers do reach the grand final and the weather on the big day happens to be inclement, they’ll be next to unbackable.

If there was any lingering doubts Richmond had restored its pressure game back to the levels of 2017 (and there wasn’t, really) this performance swept them away.

It’s an intensity which usually proves too much for opponents to deal with in fine conditions. And in the steady drizzle which persisted for much of this game, it was a completely irresistible force.

One which became apparent very early in the piece.

Collingwood big man Mason Cox kicked a point from a free kick awarded in the first attack of the game. Only a minute later, the Pies had a goal to go with it, a lovely front and square crumb from Adam Treloar. And that was about it until the final minute of the first half.

To say Richmond then proceeded to give Collingwood a football lesson would be a major understatement.

It wasn’t just the nine consecutive goals the Tigers kicked from that point. It was the way they completely dominated every facet of the game.

In the difficult, wet, slippery conditions, it was they who had the numbers around the ball. It was they who were more prepared to keep the ball bustling forward any which way, whether by hurried kick, handball, taps, toe poke, whatever it took.

Their defensive set-ups were superb, their positioning a kick behind play always perfect, the result that when the Tigers swarmed their opposition into invariably panicked, flustered disposal, a wall of Richmond jumpers was waiting at the end of that kick.

And their forward structure was perfect. You might have thought in the wet, even two genuine key position forwards might have been one too many. But that would have greatly undersold the mobility and work ethic of Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt.

Indeed, Lynch’s first half has to be one of the best played by a big man in the wet for a long, long time.

He had his first goal on the board courtesy of a free kick, and his second after out-bodying opponent Jordan Roughead and running in to snap from close range. In between, he set-up Shai Bolton for another Richmond goal after a superb pick-up off the deck and handball to the Tiger small man.

And that was only the start. Already 26 points up at quarter-time, Richmond made it five-goals-plus early in the second term after Lynch’s long ball into the teeth of goal was shinned through by the hard-working Kane Lambert, who’d initially passed to Lynch.

Lynch had his third goal after a superb diving effort to mark at ground level, and his fourth after a one-two with Riewoldt, the athletic key forward passing to his forward partner, running on to take Riewoldt’s handball, and calmly popping it through on the run from 40-odd metres.

His stats at half-time read 12 disposals, three marks, eight contested possessions, four goals and two goal assists. It was ominous stuff indeed.

Not to even mention the first half efforts of Dustin Martin, who went to the break with 23 disposals, a goal and a goal assist, not to mention a series of his own clever little taps, slaps, pokes and prods. When they say the good players get even better in the wet, Martin’s was the sort of performance they had in mind.

And even without skipper Trent Cotchin, gone early in the night with a minor hamstring injury, Martin had plenty of help, through the agency of Lambert, Dion Prestia and any number of eager Richmond beavers all over the ground, Jason Castagna, Daniel Rioli, Bolton, Shane Edwards, Sydney Stack.

Then on the few occasions the Pies were able to mount some form of attack, Dylan Grimes, David Astbury and Nick Vlastuin spoiled marking attempts and mopped up effortlessly. Collingwood seemed powerless to do anything about it. By midway through the second term, the Pies had still had just 12 inside 50s and only three for the quarter.

Finally, with under a minute of the half remaining, something finally worked for the Pies, skipper Scott Pendlebury snapping their second goal. That became three on the siren, when the next centre bounce ended up in the arms of Ben Crocker.

The margin was back to 37 points. Was there life left in Collingwood? Well, not really. Things continued to go pear-shaped for the Pies even during the break, when Roughead was ruled out for the remainder of the evening with concussion, leaving a defence already missing Darcy Moore without much height at all.

In a third term of punch and counter punch, the persistent rain finally having eased, Martin goalled first to push the gap out to 44 points again.

Josh Thomas replied soon enough. And when Jordan de Goey slotted another on the run just into time-on, it was back to 30 points. Almost immediately, though, any momentum was snuffed out, the Tigers winning a centre break, Jack Graham putting one on Riewoldt’s chest, and the spearhead doing the rest, Richmond ending up winning the quarter.

The last term became purely academic, the Pies knowing they were gone, the Tigers able to ease up just a touch, still able to celebrate some goals from the likes of Lambert and the impressive Mabior Chol and even allow Collingwood a few cheapies at the end.

The Tigers were rightly a pretty satisfied bunch as they left the MCG. You could argue the satisfaction was for having extracted some payback for their loss to Collingwood in round two, and of course, that shock preliminary final defeat last year.

But those setbacks seem like very old news now. This wasn’t about vengeance. This was a performance which spoke far louder to the prospects which lay ahead for Richmond in another month or so. They’re pretty exciting. And for any potential finals opponent, pretty damn scary.

COLLINGWOOD 1.2 3.6 5.10 9.12 (66)
RICHMOND 5.4 9.7 11.12 14.14 (98)

GOALS – Collingwood: Pendlebury 2, Mihocek 2, De Goey, Elliott, Treloar, Thomas, Crocker. Richmond: Lynch 5, Lambert 2, Martin 2, Bolton, Stack, Chol, Riewoldt, Soldo.

BEST – Collingwood: Treloar, Pendlebury, De Goey, Mayne, Crisp. RICHMOND: Martin, Lynch, Prestia, Grimes, Houli, Vlastuin.

INJURIES – Collingwood: Adams (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Crocker, Roughead (concussion). Richmond: Cotchin (hamstring)

CROWD: 78,722 at the MCG