The Demons' third victory came afterthey won the second half with the Tigers burning chance after chance due tountidy disposal inside 50.
They got within four points with fiveminutes left but the Demons held firm and kicked the last two goals of thegame.
Perhaps it was post-bye lethargy or aletdown after a highly emotional week following the passing of Tommy Hafey, butthe Tigers' sloppiness may well have already cost them a finals berth.
After eight games, they've managed justtwo wins – making an appearance in September just an outside chance.
In the middle of the second term,shortly before the Demons hit the front through a goal to Matt Jones, gamegreat Leigh Matthews said the two teams – light years apart in 2013 - were now"on a par".
"Richmond has only won a couple ofgames – they are nowhere near the team they were last year," Matthews saidon 3AW.
The Demons were also untidy early butshowed great fight, with Nathan Jones collecting 33 possessions and limitingthe influence of Trent Cotchin.
Dom Tyson (23 and nine marks), JeremyHowe (24 and eight marks) and Daniel Cross who kept Brett Deledio to 24possessions were among the best, as was Cam Pedersen, who presented well in theforward line that was missing James Frawley.
Melbourne coach Paul Roos said securingthe win when the Tigers were so emotionally motivated was highly significantfor his emerging team.
"Even though we turned the ballover a lot today, there were periods of the game where we controlled the ballwell and we were able to use our feet and get the ball down the field to ourforwards," Roos said.
"For us to beat them in thosecircumstances was huge."
But for Richmond coach Damien Hardwick,the loss cut deep.
Hardwick grew increasingly emotionalthroughout his post-match press conference, particularly when talking about theknee injury sustained by the in-form and luckless defender David Astbury.
"There's not much I can say guys... disappointing," a shattered Hardwick said.
"[It's] incredibly disappointing -one, from a seasonal point of view, but then after the death of an icon of ourfooty club, to dish up that kind of performance was really disappointing.
"Probably the one thing we werereally poor at today was winning those crucial one-on-one contests.
"Credit to them - they turned up toplay and we didn't."
It was stoppage central before halftime, with 15 secondary stoppages making the game a stop-start, congestedaffair.
The Tigers reverted back to a tallforward line with Jack Riewoldt and Ben Griffiths playing inside the arc withSam Lloyd and Tyrone Vickery pushing further up the ground.
After taking a three-point lead into thethird quarter, the Tigers used their substitute to bring in draftee Ben Lennonin place of Shaun Hampson.
It had immediate an effect with Lennonnailing a quick goal with his first kick in AFL football.
It snapped the Demons' momentum, whichwas building after back-to-back majors gave them an eight-point lead.
But when Astbury went down later in thequarter, the Tigers' early use of the sub appeared the wrong decision and theytrailed by eight points at the final change.
Astbury joined in the three-quarter timehuddle on crutches with ice on his knee, with leading sports medico Dr PeterLarkins telling 3AW he believed it was a suspected dislocated patella thatcould cost him 6-8 weeks.
It appears to be the same injury hesustained to his other knee in round 12, 2011 that cost him a year on thesidelines.
The first goal of the final quarter wentto Lennon but the Demons kicked five of the next seven to win the game.
Neville Jetta withdrew minutes beforethe first bounce after succumbing to gastro during the warm up.
He was replaced by Jimmy Toumpas, whohad 15 disposals in a creditable performance.
RICHMOND 2.3 4.8 6.16 9.20 (74)
MELBOURNE 1.3 4.5 9.6 14.7 (91)
GOALS
Richmond:Lennon 2, Edwards 2, Jackson, Riewoldt, Martin, Lloyd, Cotchin
Melbourne:Watts 3, Tyson 2, Pedersen 2, N. Jones, M. Jones, Riley, Dawes, Viney, Vince,Kennedy-Harris
BEST
Richmond:Martin, Deledio, Jackson, Cotchin
Melbourne:Tyson, N. Jones, Pedersen, Viney, Dawes, Howe, Watts
INJURIES
Richmond:Astbury (left knee), Cotchin (ankle)
Melbourne:Neville Jetta (Gastro) replaced in selected side by Jimmy Toumpas.
SUBSTITUTES
Richmond:Shaun Hampson replaced by Ben Lennon in the third quarter
Melbourne:Aidan Riley replaced by Jay Kennedy-Harris in the third quarter
Reports:Nil
Umpires:Fisher, Nicholls, Ryan
Official crowd: 56,960 at the MCG
