Rival coaches Brian Royal and Matthew Knights have defended Richmond's Joel Bowden for his game-saving tactic in Saturday's four-point AFL win over Essendon.

With only seconds left, Bowden was kicking in after Essendon had scored a behind when he twice walked over the goal line to concede two more rushed behinds.

The Bombers fans hated it, but Bowden successfully ran down the clock and then kicked back into play just before the final siren, as the Tigers won 16.12 (108) to 15.14 (104).

Royal, the Richmond assistant coach, bristled at a post-match suggestion that Bowden's tactic was bad sportsmanship.

"You can make it a rift if you want to make it a rift," Royal said.

"We're about winning four points, and if it's doing what Joel did ... that's smart play.

"You couldn't tell me that if Essendon were in the same position they wouldn't have done the same thing."

Knights, the Essendon coach, said he knew immediately what Bowden was doing the first time he walked back across the goal line and called it "pretty good play".

"We had our opportunities, even in that last 10 minutes, with set shots on goal...and you've got to take them in this game, it's such a cut-throat league," Knights said.

"Joel did what he had to do to win the game, we were pressing really hard."

Along with the two rushed behinds, Essendon finished with six-straight minor scores, including two misses by Jason Laycock.

The Bombers were gallant, storming back after half-time to turn a four-goal deficit into a two-goal lead despite being reduced to only 19 fit men.

Essendon already had major injury troubles before the game and lost key defender Dustin Fletcher (ankle) as a late withdrawal.

Then Andrew Welsh (concussion), Angus Monfries (ankle) and Jay Neagle (ankle) were forced to leave the field.

"I knew the game started to go pear-shaped when my runner David Calthorpe did a calf in about the first 10 minutes and it went downhill from then," Knights said.

But the Tigers were also impressive, given that coach Terry Wallace was in hospital for two nights this week with a respiratory infection and they only had a six-day turnaround after beating West Coast in Perth.

"It shows enormous courage from the whole group, to be able to come back from Essendon having quite a significant run-on in the third quarter, to eventually get across the line," Royal said.

Royal filled in at the post-match media conference for Wallace, who is out of hospital but still unwell.

While Knights was pleased with his team's courage, he said there were no excuses.

"I said to the players post-game, the reality is, I don't care if we're down to 16 or 17, when you're there to win the game with 10 minutes to go, it's a disappointing loss," Knights said.

"They played admirably, they played their hearts out."

Richmond onballer Nathan Foley was outstanding and Mitch Morton kicked four goals.

Essendon onballer Brent Stanton and ruckman David Hille impressed, while forward Scott Lucas kicked an amazing goal in the third-term surge.

Lucas soccered the ball out of mid-air on a tight angle and the ball never looked like missing.

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