RICHMOND 0.2 Â 4.6 Â 8.8 Â 9.10 (64)
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 3.4 Â 3.5 Â 4.5 Â 6.9 (45)
Goals: Richmond: J Riewoldt 2 D Martin D Rioli J Caddy J Castagna K Lambert K McIntosh T Nankervis. Greater Western Sydney: C Ward J Kelly J Patton L Whitfield N Haynes T Greene.
Umpires: Jacob Mollison, Brett Rosebury, Andrew Mitchell.
Official Crowd: 33,467 at MCG.
Greater Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron threatened to wield the axe after Richmond gave the one-time flag favourites a lesson on how to play blue-collar football.
The Giants'Â premiership bid is unravelling before their eyes, while the Tigers have boosted their claims after a stirring 19-point victory at the MCG on Sunday.
The Giants arrived at the home of football with a statement to make. They yelled it from the rooftops in the first quarter but by the end of the game cries of "yellow and black" were reverberating around the stadium.
Brilliant early, the Giants gave little after being challenged by the Tigers, who were harder and stronger for longer and duly rewarded by a return to the top four.
GWS are third but not for much longer unless they can snap an alarming run that has yielded just one win from their past six games.
There were encouraging signs last week against Sydney but that was shown to be a derby-inspired spike rather than the start of something more substantial.
Here, they kicked the first three goals of the game then gave up eight of the next nine.
While the Giants are confident star on-baller Stephen Coniglio will return next week, Cameron has forecast making drastic changes unless he sees a major change in attitude.
"I'm really disappointed because I thought we made some serious ground against the best side in the competition [last week]," Cameron said.
"We delivered for half a game this week so you could look at it as a backward step. We're not going to shy away from it.
"We have to stare it down in the review and those players who don't do it for longer are not going to survive.
"With some better form at the lower level and some players starting to get back I'm really hoping pressure really starts coming from below.
"If the pressure comes from below you find out about your players you want to play in your starting 22."
For Richmond, this was the type of win in torrid conditions from which real belief is built. Not only did they have to overcome a horrible start to change the game, they found plenty when the Giants mounted a final assault.
And it was their stars, Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin, who rolled their sleeves up and lifted their side.
Smacked early, their ball was stilted in contrast to the Giants, who were whizzing the Sherrin from end to end with purpose and finding holes in the Tigers' zone.
The Tigers did not score until almost time on and their first goal did not come until early in the second term. The Giants led at quarter-time by 20 points but they had done enough for it to be double that.
Sensing the danger, Martin and Cotchin imposed themselves on the game with 11 possessions each in the second quarter.
The Giants buckled under Richmond's immense pressure. Straightforward marks were being spilt, simple kicks were missing their mark. The greasy conditions did not suit their run and gun style either.
The groans that had bellowed from the yellow and black faithful in the first term turned into roars in the second, and their heroes fed on the energy. The match was being played entirely on the Tigers' terms in the second and third quarters.
"It was certainly not a game we'll go and get back out of the archives, but from an intensity and effort [point of view] I thought it was terrific," Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said.
"[The] first quarter we looked a little bit off the pace, they probably didn't capitalise as much as they should have. But I thought the second and third quarters we really controlled proceedings."