In the last game in Victoria for at least a month, the Tigers held off a fast-finishing Melbourne to win by 27 points at the MCG on Sunday.

The reigning premiers capitalised on an error-ridden and wasteful Demons side to prevail 12.7 (79) to 8.4 (52).

But star midfielder Dion Prestia and ruckman Toby Nankervis both went down with syndesmosis ankle ligament injuries in the second half and failed to finish the match.

Trent Cotchin also has a "tiny" hamstring strain and Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has already ruled the two-time premiership captain out of next Sunday's clash with Sydney.

To top it all off, key forward Tom Lynch is dealing with a broken finger, although he played out the game and finished with three goals.

"It's kind of a hefty price (for the win) but those boys will be back," Hardwick said.

"We get an opportunity to see some other players fill some roles, which excites us. We've been down this path before and we've dealt with it."

Richmond started to look more like themselves in this round-five clash, adding a second victory to their sole previous triumph this season, which came when they defeated Carlton back in March.

They appeared to be cruising before Melbourne took advantage of the wounded Tigers in the last quarter to go on a mini-charge before Richmond steadied again.

As they have done in winning two of the last three flags, Richmond shared the scoreboard load with eight individual goal-kickers, but Kane Lambert was electric with three goals and 26 possessions.

Melbourne comfortably had more inside-50s, but terrible ball-use early in the match ensured they managed just three first-half goals to trail by 25 points at the main break.

Lynch slotted the first goal of the game, but Steven May did a decent job on the Tigers spearhead in a battle of the former Gold Coast co-captains.

On top of the injury setbacks, Richmond are already preparing to enter hub life in Queensland without experienced pair Bachar Houli and Shane Edwards, with the duo set to opt out of travelling for family reasons.

Key defender David Astbury is still recovering from a knee injury and will miss up to another month.

Melbourne midfielder Christian Petracca was outstanding, particularly in the first half, but only captain Max Gawn and defender Michael Hibberd gave him enough genuine support.

Mitch Hannan (three goals), Jake Melksham and Bayley Fritsch (two) were the Demons targets up forward, but Melbourne wasted too many inside-50 entries to have a chance of pinching their second win of the season.

"They (Richmond) pressured us into over-using the ball," Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said.

"It was a familiar tale. We turned the ball over forward of centre and they punished us."

Australian Associated Press