The most exciting player in the AFL right now is not Gary Ablett or Chris Judd or even Stephen Milne, but the full-forward from the worst-performed club. The club that's kicked the fewest goals in the league, won only two matches and has comfortably the poorest percentage of all - a measly 67.68.

Such has been Jack Riewoldt's emergence as a power forward in the past five weeks, when he's kicked bags of four, six, four, six and now 10 today against West Coast, that he has almost single-handedly lifted Richmond up by its yellow sash, breathed some life into its decaying, moth-eaten Tiger skin and given it a smidgin of hope for the future. It has been a wonder to behold.

For Riewoldt leads hard, jumps high, splits packs, takes speccies like the full-forwards of old - in echoes, in fact, of another Tiger No.8, Michael Roach - and then he usually converts.

He now leads the Coleman Medal tally with 45 goals, by two from Barry Hall, with Brendan Fevola two further back on 41.

You could have got big odds - 125/1, in fact - on the Tasmanian taking out the goalkicking award at the start of the season. Now it's no great stretch of the imagination to think the down-at-heel Tigers might produce not just the Coleman Medallist but, in Dustin Martin, the Norwich Rising Star as well.

And one of the most pleasing aspects of today's performance for Tiger fans would have been not just Riewoldt's swag of goals - the most by a Tiger since Matthew Richardson booted 10 in 2004 - but the continued great form of Martin, who picked up 14 disposals and a goal in the crucial opening quarter.

It was in that term that Riewoldt bolted out of the gates with five goals in a scorching first 19 minutes that set up the Tigers' second win of the season.

Again, he was outstanding in the air - seven of his nine marks were contested - but he was also a threat when the ball hit the ground as evidenced by his eighth major which he bounced through the middle after gathering in heavy traffic.

Richmond has kicked 123 goals in 12 matches this year, and its blond full-forward has bagged 45 of them - or 37%. Ben Nason is next on 12, then Robin Nahas on 10, and that's it for the double-digit scorers at Tigerland.

Riewoldt's purple patch started in round 8 against Hawthorn, when he kicked four of Richmond's 13 goals. The following week, against Essendon, he snagged six out of 14. In round 10, he contributed four out of 10 against Port; in round 11, six out of eight in a brilliant solo effort against St Kilda and today, 10 out of 19 in the drubbing of West Coast.

So in the past five weeks, Richmond has scored 64 goals and he's been responsible for 30 of them - almost half. Such has been his dominance, and the way his confidence has grown in front of our eyes.

He doesn't have the physical presence yet of a Jonathan Brown, or a Matthew Pavlich or indeed of his cousin Nick Riewoldt at St Kilda, and it is surprising to see him listed at 193cms in the team stats. Which is only four cms shorter than recently retired ruckman Troy Simmonds.

But his shoulders are broad enough, as indeed they'll need to be, to cope with the expectation inevitably piled on to him by Richmond supporters desperate for someone to lead them out of the wilderness.