1. Top four Tigers?
Hawthorn's surprise loss to Port Adelaide on Friday night has opened up the top four, and means the Tigers are just one game behind the premiers with two rounds to play. Losses to Fremantle and Adelaide in the last four weeks had made it tough for the Tigers to contend for the double chance, but now with consecutive wins over Gold Coast and Collingwood, they're right back in the mix. With a winnable clash against Essendon and a final round encounter with North Melbourne – who are in a similar place to the Tigers - to come, there's plenty to play for in the run to September.

2. Tyrone time
Jack Riewoldt leads Richmond's goal-kicking but it was another enigmatic Tiger that took control of Saturday's game and made life hell for the Collingwood backmen. The often-maligned Tyrone Vickery excelled where the Pies struggled and was cool, calm and collected in front of goal to boot a personal best bag of six majors. He marked strongly, kicked truly and played with the confidence of a player who is determined to appear in this year's finals campaign after he was left out 12 months ago.

3. Forward follies
The Magpies' forward line woes continued with a variety of mistakes thwarting their ability to put on any form of scoreboard pressure. They took the ball inside 50 enough – the final tally was 58 to 48 their way - but time and time again they bombed it in without any real intent to isolate a target with Travis Cloke taking his first mark inside 50 in the fourth term, Darcy Moore trying hard but going goalless and Ben Reid having two touches in the first half before moving to defence. When they applied pressure, they got shots on goal but their accuracy was awful, particularly in close. It's definitely an area that needs attention over summer as they work through just where their season fell apart.

4. Crouching Tigers ready to pounce
In comparison, the Tigers set their sights on improving some key areas they were deficient in last week against Gold Coast and would have pleased their coach with their application. Last week, they registered just 30 tackles – this week, they'd surpassed that by half time and ended with 56. They were also better defensively and narrowly won the contested possession count, which was where they fell down two weeks ago against Adelaide. One element at a time, it's starting to come together for the Tigers after an up and down five weeks.

5. Newman's swansong
Hearts were in mouths late in the third quarter when Chris Newman hobbled off clutching his right hamstring. The former Richmond captain announced his retirement at the end of the season this week, which has given the Tigers an additional reason to finish the year on a high. The initial look on Newman's face when he limped off indicated a known injury, but a few rub downs and a jog along the boundary was enough to get him back up and out there, where he joined in the final-quarter party and kicked one of the Tigers' nine goals.