RETURNING Western Bulldogs tall Jack Redpath booted six goals in his return from a knee reconstruction in Footscray's seven-point win against Richmond in the VFL at Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

Redpath ruptured the ACL in his right knee last July against St Kilda, in the same match midfielder Mitch Wallis suffered a broken leg.

The 26-year-old returned relatively quickly, with the recovery time for knee reconstructions generally being 12 months.

"It's been nine-and-a-half months, or just over that. It is reasonably quick but I worked my butt off this year," Redpath said.

"From the moment I did it, I was back running in 18 weeks. I feel like I've done everything right."

He had his right knee iced after the win but was happy he could replicate the feats of Wallis, who made his own return against North Ballarat last week and picked up 34 disposals in a best-on-ground display.

Dogs skipper Robert Murphy suffered the same injury as Redpath early last season and had been in touch with the key forward.

"Murph was messaging me all morning. When you're at a football club, there are 44 guys to bounce ideas off and have a chat to. To see Wally last week come back after a horrific injury, that broken leg, it doesn't get much worse than that in football," Redpath said.

"To see his return, I knew that we were on par. I've put in the same amount of work Wally has and went out with the attitude of 'why not come out here and give it all I've got and see what happens'."

Redpath hit the post with his first two shots at goal but soon found his radar. His last goal came after the final siren, while his contested marking and presence in attack was important for the Dogs as they came back from 33 points down at quarter-time.

A late goal to Lukas Webb put the Bulldogs in front as they ran out winners, 17.16 (118) to 17.9 (111).