THE AFL is a copycat league.

When one team has mastered a particular style and has success with it, the natural flow-on effect is other clubs try to emulate it.

Season 2017 has proven no different, with the Western Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership blueprint being used by someone else. However, it is a team no one expected.

Damien Hardwick has his Richmond squad playing an inspired brand of football, one that sees them sitting in the top four halfway through the campaign. Considering the coach was under the pump coming into the year, and the Tigers were seemingly headed for a regeneration of their list, it has been the feel-good story of the season.

The Bulldogs’ championship was underpinned by some key concepts. Lock the ball in your forward half, apply manic pressure and limit the oppositions scoring chances. It was a framework that worked, despite Luke Beveridge’s list possessing gaps due to injury and pure talent.

Now, the Tigers are implementing that strategy, and some could argue they’re doing it more effectively. Richmond is getting the ball in their attacking zone more often then not and keeping it in there, overcoming an undermanned forward line.

The footy is entering the Tigers’ forward 50 six times more than its opponents per game this season, the fourth best rate in the competition. Furthermore, a +7:22 time in forward half differential, second in the league, is another representation of how the game is being played in Richmond’s favour.

By comparison, the Bulldogs had very similar numbers, as they were second in both areas last year.

Where the Tigers have actually bettered the Dogs, though, is harassing their rival defenders, playing with a boisterous nature in their half of the field.

Thanks to a pack of ferocious small defenders, headed by Dan Butler, Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Jason Castagna and Sam Lloyd, Richmond is playing with a new-found sense of aggressiveness in the offensive area.

The Tigers are first in the competition for turnovers created in the forward half, forcing 30.2 per game. Additionally, Richmond has a forward half pressure factor of 177, second in the league, and score 35.5 points from forward half turnovers, ranked fifth.

In 2016, the Bulldogs were seventh, 10th and 12th in the same categories, proving Hardwick’s men are enforcing a greater amount of duress on their opponent than Beveridge’s boys could.

Richmond is getting the ball in the forward half as proficiently as the Dogs did, and are playing more viciously when it is down there. In finals, when the intensity lifts a level and territory is of the upmost importance, it’s hard to ignore how good the Tigers have been in that area.

While the correlation between this year’s Richmond and last year’s Bulldogs is high, a former Tiger coach also believes the two squads are equally aligned in 2017.

“When you look at Richmond, why aren’t we talking them up a little more?” Terry Wallace said on SEN radio, prior to the Tigers’ Round 10 contest against North Melbourne.

Toby Nankervis, Shaun Grigg, Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt after a Tigers win. Source: Getty Images

“Both sides have played four of their 10 games against top eight teams. Richmond, at the moment, has scored 879 points and the Bulldogs have scored 879 points. They’ve scored exactly the same. In the points against category, Richmond is on 812 and the Bulldogs are 811. So there is one point difference between the two sides.

“The Bulldogs, GWS and Adelaide are being rated as the premiership sides. The Tigers had a bad day against Adelaide, but they lost by five to the Dogs and three in an unlosable game against GWS, on their home ground.

“Yet, no one is giving the Tigers any sort of credit. What they’ve done this season stacks up with the better sides in the competition.”

Not only has Richmond’s offensive work been impressive, they’ve been just as good on the defensive end.

The Tigers allow a goal to their opponent just 22.1 per cent of the time per their inside 50s, the best mark in the entire league. Richmond is also second for intercept possessions; another number that personifies their ability to stifle opposition attacks.

With stalwart Alex Rance, the ever-improving David Astbury, Dylan Grimes and Brandon Ellis, and the dynamic Kamdyn McIntosh and Bachar Houli, the Tigers have a unique blend of defenders that are clicking on all cylinders.

“I’ve got to put my hand up, I didn’t give Richmond the respect or credit they deserve,” Hawthorn champion, Jason Dunstall, said on Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

“They’re a genuine team that is difficult to play against. Their stats represent a very good side.

“If they get their conversion right, they’ll go to another level again.”

As Dunstall alluded to, there is further scope of improvement for Richmond. They rank 17th for goals per inside 50, but as they proved in the third quarter against the Kangaroos, they have the firepower to generate majors in a hurry.

The Tigers kicked six goals in the third quarter against North, including four in a six-minute burst to begin the half. The firepower is there to put points on the board; they just need to do it more consistently.

Of course, the Bulldogs faced an almost identical challenge. Beveridge’s team were 15th for goals per inside 50 during the home-and-away campaign last year, before scoring 99, 107, 89 and 89 in their four finals games.

Nobody anticipated the Dogs winning the flag in 2016, and it developed into one of the greatest fairytales in Australian sport.

Richmond is now following the same script, and the ending could be just as redeeming.

Check out more of Luke Sicari’s Media Academy articles here.