Toby Greene has rediscovered his creative best as Greater Western Sydney surged back into the AFL top eight with a 24-point win over bottom side Richmond.
Greene made the most of a rare trip to the MCG with an equal game-high four goals in the Giants' 17.6 (108) to 12.12 (84) victory on Sunday.
The inspirational captain also had 10 score involvements and directly assisted four goals, while Coleman Medal contender Jesse Hogan added another four majors to his personal tally of 45 for the season.
"They're both very good players and very good finishers," Giants coach Adam Kingsley said.
"Toby was outstanding early, not only creating goals but also contributing and getting the ball moving through the midfield.
"Jesse finished his work off in the second half and probably reaped the rewards of us trying to create some better shots and squaring up from the boundary line.
"I was really pleased with that aspect of our game."
Tom Green (37 touches) and Lachie Whitfield (34) were also influential in a hard-fought victory that leaves the Giants (10-7) just one win off second spot.
But there is some concern over Stephen Coniglio, who was substituted out of his third game back from a shoulder injury with soreness in the joint.
It was the Giants' first visit to the MCG this season and first win over Richmond at the grand final venue from eight attempts since their 2012 inception.
The result came despite GWS being outplayed in the midfield by Richmond's returning veteran Dion Prestia (27 disposals, four clearances) and former Giants on-ballers Tim Taranto (27, six) and Jacob Hopper (28, five).
"It was a real danger game for us, so it was nice to get the win, but there were aspects of our game that we didn't quite get right," Kingsley said.
"Our ball use from the back half had moments but we only generated 36 inside-50s (to Richmond's 53), which is extraordinarily low.
"We didn't give our forwards ample opportunity to really score, so we were fortunate that we did make the most of our entries and kicked very accurately."
Third-gamer Steely Green booted three goals for Richmond, including two in a row during the final quarter when the home side briefly threatened to mount a late fightback.
Jacob Koschitzke, Shai Bolton and Rhyan Mansell added two majors each.
But a fourth-straight defeat left the Tigers (2-15) anchored to the foot of the ladder, and they lost Taranto to concussion late in the game as the result of a tackle from tagger Toby Bedford.
Richmond coach Adem Yze praised his side's method, in particular through the midfield, but conceded there were breakdowns in allowing the efficient Giants to score from almost half of their forward entries.
"To keep a team to 36 inside-50s but allow them to score 100 points is not good enough," Yze said.
"We'll look at the reasons why, but on the flipside I thought we gave ourselves opportunities to score.
"Our front-half game looked better and we've just got to get back to work, but it was a disappointing day."
The crowd of 19,040 was the lowest for a Richmond game at the MCG - outside of pandemic restrictions - since 2004.
