Richmond's ascent from the deepest recesses of the AFL ladder after the halfway mark of the season to a finals berth is unparalleled.

The Brisbane Bears in 1995 had won just four of their first 13 games before storming home to make the eight, but even then they were two games clear of the bottom two teams on the ladder. Fitzroy in 1984 was 5-8 and managed to scramble into the then final five. But 3-10 then finals? Crazy stuff.

To give this comeback of comebacks further context, when Richmond last lost it was equal bottom - on points - on the ladder, and ahead of only the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda on percentage. Port Adelaide, the team it will play in Sunday's elimination final, was a game clear on top.

That's some climb. And the cue for a "we were wrong" of sorts. It's been easy throughout much of this resurgence to find convenient rationalisations for Richmond's new-found winning ways.

The first couple of wins in the streak, against St Kilda and Brisbane, were nothing special. The victory over Port Adelaide came when things had turned very sour for the Power, the loss its fourth in five games.

West Coast was just going when the Tigers beat it in Perth, and the wet conditions conspired against the Eagles' tall forwards. And that was followed by a relatively pedestrian win over the hardly intimidating Greater Western Sydney.

But it's impossible to argue with what's come since. An 18-point win against Essendon came after Richmond was challenged three times and responded. At Adelaide Oval in front of the rabid Crows faithful, the Tigers lost a game-long lead with only four minutes left and managed to wrest it back. And Saturday night's effort against ladder leader Sydney needs little further explanation.

So where does it end for Richmond? The cynics will chorus "in seven days' time". That's a short-sighted view, even if it is correct. But is it that clear-cut in an immediate sense? Hardly.

The venue - Adelaide Oval - as the Tigers proved against Adelaide only a couple of weeks ago, holds few fears. Indeed, Richmond is 5-1 on the road this season, the hostility of a game environment seeming only to galvanise this playing group.

The opponent? Richmond has three wins and a draw from its last four clashes with Port Adelaide and has lost only three of the past eight, each of those by 15 points or less. Injuries and key players? Check. Richmond has almost a full list to choose from. And its leaders and most pivotal players are in great nick.

The consistency of Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin and now Brandon Ellis and Anthony Miles in midfield has been pivotal, and allowed more flexibility and time for Martin in particular up forward, all being serviced brilliantly at the moment by the ruck work of Ivan Maric.

Things look pretty good at either end of the ground, too. In defence, Alex Rance and Troy Chaplin were superb in those furious final minutes against Sydney.

Up forward, Jack Riewoldt has kicked 10 goals in the past two games and looked as dangerous as he has all season. But Riewoldt is no longer the whole cake, either. The Tigers over the past couple of months are averaging more individual goalkickers a game than any other side, bar Fremantle.

In all departments, Richmond couldn't be any better prepared for Sunday, the spoils of potential victory another huge challenge away from home against either Sydney or Fremantle.

And defeat? Again, some will scoff at coach Damien Hardwick's post-game claims that Richmond is better placed now than at the same stage of 2013. And superficially, perhaps it's entitled to.

The Tigers have won three fewer games, have scored fewer points and conceded more than last year. Most of their differential rankings remain the same as last season, with slight improvements for clearances, uncontested possession and disposal efficiency.

That last indicator is significant, though, even as a measure of a growing maturity and coolness under pressure that has never been a trademark of the latter-day Richmond.

Think back to last year's elimination final disaster against Carlton, and the Tigers surrendering of a 32-point lead. Now think of the way Richmond continued to repel attack after Sydney attack on Saturday night. It's hard to imagine this group buckling now as it did against the Blues.

What Richmond has done in the back half of this season truly is an example of an improvement that may not be measured statistically as much as by perception, and only the churlish would now refuse to believe the 2014 model is made of tougher and more resilient stuff than its predecessor.

That stands Hardwick's group, and indeed a long-term plan now five years in the making, in pretty good stead, regardless of what happens against the Power next week.

And ironically, and almost perversely, that ridiculously bad start to 2014 of 3-10 in retrospect may prove to have been not only the final lesson required by the Tigers of today, but the making of them.

And while I'm at it...

EAGLES GIVE AND TAKE

If low-scoring scraps aren't your cup of tea, you would have enjoyed the final round of the season, a comparative feast in what has at times this season been a scoring famine.

Attack became de rigueur, eight teams topping the ton and another half-a-dozen finishing in the 90s. At one stage at Metricon Stadium, Lance Franklin's Coleman Medal was looking under serious threat from a rampaging West Coast full-forward Josh Kennedy, despite having started the afternoon 14 goals behind the Sydney superstar. Kennedy eventually settled for eight, his second-highest haul of the season.

Kennedy's team ended up being involved in 2014's three-highest scoring matches, Sunday's 151-99 win over Gold Coast coming in second behind its 30-goal tally in the round 12 obliteration of GWS, and just in front of the round 19 shootout against Adelaide.

That might have proved, given the Eagles ranked only fifth for scoring, that Adam Simpson's team knows not only how to kick a goal, but give them up as well, something sure to receive attention in the off-season.

It's not much comfort for the coach, but you at least knew watching the Eagles this season that you were likely to see goals at one end or the other.

TISSUES, PLEASE

Richmond's big win in Sydney on Saturday night might have rendered Sunday's Adelaide-St Kilda clash meaningless in finals terms, but it wasn't short of romance, or records.

Lenny Hayes' retirement has been the subject ofmuch tribute, but his 297th and final game ofAFL football triggered a new round of deserved accolades, and a typical Hayes performance. Hayes' 13 tackles not only doubled the number recorded by any of the other 43 players on Adelaide Oval, but took him to No. 1 spot on the all-time tackle rankings. Only once in his career hadHayes racked up more in a game than his count against the Crows.

But Adelaide has its own loved figure bowing out in Ben Rutten, who wasn't about to be done on notable statistics. In his first game of AFL football in 2003, Rutten scored three goals with his first three kicks.

Over the following 11 seasons and 1449 kicks, anchored to full-back, he managed another five. But the 1450th and final hoof of a distinguished stint, you guessed it, gave Rutten his ninth career goal. Two great careers, two great send-offs, and barely a dry eye in the house.

Who says footy doesn't have a heart?