Adem Yze has lauded Noah Balta's influential contribution in his controversial return as Richmond ended Gold Coast's unbeaten start to the AFL season in a tense 11-point upset.
The Tigers, with Tim Taranto outstanding in the middle, never trailed in the 12.8 (80) to 9.15 (69) victory at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
But there were nervous moments in their second win of the year, as a 43-point advantage was almost wiped out when the Suns kicked five unanswered goals in the final term.
The surprise result followed a week of fierce scrutiny over Richmond's handling of Balta's recall.
After serving a four-match ban, Balta made his first appearance of the season just three days before he will be sentenced for assault.
The premiership defender held opponent Ben King to one goal in a strong performance despite the intense spotlight and the possibility of jail time hanging over his head.
"It's not only highlighting the talent of Noah but it highlights the effort and the training that he's done over the last three months," Tigers coach Yze said.
"He's done a mountain of work, extras, supporting our younger players ... not only to get himself right to play, but he's been trying to win back the respect of his footy club.
"He knows he let the club down, he knows he did something wrong, but he's been dealing with that every day.
"Noah's performance today was outstanding and it's a credit to him. We're really proud of him."
Jeers for Balta by some in the relatively small crowd of 18,423 fans were regularly drowned out by cheers from Richmond supporters.
And the Tigers' faithful had plenty to celebrate as their rebuilding side sprung one of the biggest shocks of the season so far.
Experienced duo Taranto (35 disposals) and Jacob Hopper (27) were superb in the middle and Nick Vlastuin (27) had 15 intercept possessions.
Balta had 10, along with four contested marks, while Tom Lynch and Seth Campbell kicked two goals each.
Richmond led by 14 points at halftime and made their big move during the third quarter, piling on 6.1 to 1.2 for the term as the lead ballooned to 43 points by the final change.
There were some nervous moments at start of the last quarter when Gold Coast kicked three goals in four minutes, but the Tigers stemmed the flow and hung on during the frantic final stages.
Ben Long kicked three goals for Gold Coast and midfield trio Matt Rowell (28 disposals), Touk Miller (33) and Noah Anderson (32) won plenty of the ball.
Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick lamented his side's "poor" discipline early, when spotfires littered the contest, as well as the fact they were unable to capitalise on a 62-42 advantage in forward entries in their first loss of the year.
"We're not going to jump at shadows," Hardwick said.
"We had plus-20 inside-50s but we just didn't get the job done at ground level. That's the reality.
"(Our forwards) are all relatively young and they're going to get better but every now and then we probably get a performance that's a little bit inconsistent and below their level."
It was Richmond's first win at Marvel Stadium in a dozen games, ending a barren stretch that started in 2021 after then-Tigers coach Hardwick said he hated going to the "soulless" league-owned venue.
