Richmond coach Damien Hardwick believes his team is only just starting to scratch the surface of their potential, but says they still have to fix up some deficiencies to become an elite AFL side.

The Tigers moved into seventh spot on the table with a shock 41-point win over West Coast at Patersons Stadium on Monday night.

Richmond booted nine unanswered goals after quarter-time to set up the 16.7 (103) to 8.14 (62) win, with their sixth triumph of the year leaving them well placed to make the finals for the first time since 2001.

The Tigers have steadily improved since Hardwick took over the reins in 2010, but the fourth-year coach said there was still some work to do before his team became the finished product.

“We’re just scratching the surface,” Hardwick said.

“We’ve still got some areas that we’re deficient in that we need to improve. So let’s just make sure we win our games coming up, and then whatever will be, will be.”

While Richmond will enter their bye week brimming with confidence, West Coast have some soul-searching to do ahead of Sunday’s clash with St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.

The Eagles were clearly off the boil against the Tigers, with the performance arguably their worst since winning the wooden spoon in 2010.

West Coast dominated the hit-outs 81-27 and won the inside-50m count 48-47, but lost the clearances 45-41 and struggled to create many clear-cut opportunities after quarter-time.

Even coach John Worsfold was surprised by the lacklustre display, saying there was no indication in the lead-up to the match that his players were flat.

West Coast’s fifth loss of the season left them 10 competition points adrift of fourth spot.

Although they will start favourites against the Saints, the Eagles face a horror draw after their bye, with games against Hawthorn (away), Essendon, Adelaide (away), Fremantle and Sydney sure to test their finals credentials.

Worsfold is disappointed to see his side languishing in 10th spot on the table, but said he couldn’t afford to get caught up in ladder positions just yet.

“We would love to be on top of the ladder going into a finals series. If that’s not the case, we’ll hopefully be playing our best footy and take it from there,” Worsfold said.