In career-best form amid his best injury run in years, Richmond gun Dion Prestia believes the Tigers are again on the verge of something special.
Prestia starred with 33 disposals, 19 contested possessions and 13 clearances as the Tigers fought past Carlton on Thursday night to seal their fifth win in six matches and leap into the AFL top eight.
The 29-year-old has been central to Richmond's form, averaging nearly 26 disposals per game.
"Yeah, I think so (it's career best form). It's probably one of the fittest I've been," he said.
"Obviously 2019 I had some good games but in the last few years I feel like I'm playing some really good footy and I just try to stay consistent."
Crucially, Prestia has stayed fit for most of the 2022 campaign after two injury-filled seasons.
Prestia has played eight consecutive games for the first time since 2019 and his nine games already matches his total appearances in each of the 2020 and 2021 campaigns.
He credited the work he and Richmond's medical staff had put into strengthening his legs in pre-season and after a hamstring injury suffered in round one.
"I feel like I'm in pretty good form at the moment and just being able to consistently play games and consistently train has really put me in good stead," he said.
"We implemented a few things after round one when I got injured. So it's working.
"I feel like we've got something that's really working for myself, at least.
"So yeah, really confident I can run out games. I'm playing more game time than I probably ever have in the last few weeks as well. So confident in everything and how it's going."
Triple-premiership Tiger Prestia felt things were generally tracking well and saw parallels with the flag-winning years.
"We're changing little things throughout the season. I feel we did that a lot in our successful years, we came in with a plan and then changed a few things from pre-season to in-season," he said.
"We're starting to get the boys a lot healthier, I think last night was pretty much close to full-strength.
"It just changes the way that we defend and things going forward attacking wise.
"I think we had 76 inside-50s (against Carlton). We'd like to score a lot more from those inside-50s but I think we're doing a lot right and still tweaking things to sharpen up by the end of the year."
