Richmond coach Terry Wallace says the Tigers are out to beat the in-form Western Bulldogs at their own fast-paced game in Monday's AFL clash at Etihad Stadium.

While the Bulldogs' strengths of pace and skill are ideally suited to the undercover venue, the Tigers are backing themselves to outdo them.

"We rate our own leg speed, it's an area that we really believe we're strong ourselves," Wallace said.

"So from that aspect we're prepared to take them on.

"It was 130 points each (when the two sides last met) last year, so it wasn't really a game of defences or trying to clog or block each other up.

"To be honest at that ground at times it's difficult because it is such a fast track.

"We're comfortable to play them head to head."

With the sides' game styles likely to be similar, Wallace acknowledged the Tigers would live or die on how well they used the ball.

"The execution factor is huge in today's game," he said.

"Every time we look after the ball we're in a game, every time we disrespect the footy we get blown out, so that's where the game is."

Wallace said the Bulldogs had been impressive over the first two rounds, but Richmond could win if they maintained the form they showed at stages against Geelong last weekend for an entire match.

"We took some good strides last week against a very capable side," he said.

"We need to be showing the form that we showed in patches of that game over four quarters.

"That's really where it sits, if we play the type of footy we played in the third quarter we're going to be competitive against any side in the competition.

"But you can't do it for a 40-minute or 50-minute scenario, you've got to do it over a four quarter period and that's what we've got to try to achieve this weekend."

Meanwhile, the Tigers expect to be bolstered by the return of several important players from injury in the coming weeks.

Wallace said Mark Coughlan, named as an emergency after last playing a premiership season AFL game in 2006 before being cut down by injury, was one or two more solid VFL games away from returning.

Ben Cousins, Trent Cotchin and Andrew Raines were all likely to be available in a fortnight.

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