When on song Richmond will trouble any side in the competition, but the Bulldogs are up to the challenge according to Senior Coach Brendan McCartney.

The Tigers hold a strong record against the Dogs in recent years and McCartney said this clash will show just how much his team has improved since they last met in Round 13 last year.

“Every game is a measuring stick of what you are doing,” McCartney said.

“There are a couple of things that, at their best, Richmond is a challenge for every club.

“It is an area that we have been really working strongly at - so for me and our coaches and our players, yeah it’s a good test - we are confident we will play pretty well Saturday.”

McCartney said it was important the Bulldogs did not allow Richmond to play the game on their own terms or it would be an uphill battle for the four points.

“They have got a distinct way of playing, if you let them play the way they want, they will test you,” he said.

“I would have thought they were really well advanced with that group, [Coach] Damien [Hardwick] has had them for five or six years now and he’s had a coaching group around him.

“That’s a good time frame for everyone to have a connection where everyone is really clear about how they want to go about it.”

The Bulldogs are eager to improve on last week’s showing against North Melbourne, applying their defensive brand of football across the whole four quarters.

“We are going to turn up on Saturday to have a real crack again and we are confident we can do it for a little bit longer than we did last Sunday,” he said.

“We fell about…probably 15 minutes [short]. [We will] fight all day to play the way we want and see where it takes us.”