The Cavaliers were dominant in a 3-0 victory over Richmond at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

Captain Fleming praised his team for its remarkable return to winning ways after losing four games in the opening five rounds.

"I think we were panicking that we were going to finish in the bottom three or four and we had to fight hard and we gathered together as a group, recruited a few new players and we worked on a few things with Paul," Fleming said.

"Dobson obviously came in and we were able to turn it around and I think our class showed through today on a good surface."

Harris, who took over the coaching role from Peter Ollerton after the club's sluggish start to the season, also praised the return of Dobson.

"Some of the players who had been at the club under Dobson before probably missed that little bit of direction or that little bit of structure and they needed to have it re-introduced," Harris said.

Fleming congratulated Richmond on the difficult task of winning the minor premiership, but admitted the Cavaliers looked to make the Eagles midfielders run after their difficult outing against Hume City.

"I think if we were composed and we kept the ball, we did run them ragged a little bit," Fleming said.

"I think they found it hard to get tight on us so we had a lot of space with the ball.

"I don't know whether that's fatigue. I know they had a tough game last Sunday, in heavy conditions, I'm sure that played a part.

"I think credit to our boys for just being able to use that to our advantage a little bit and knock the ball around and make them run a little bit and I think in the second half they were pretty tired."

Fleming said the players utilized the week off to work through a few niggling injuries and he thanked the club for helping bring the fans to AAMI Park.

"To play on a surface like that is amazing and for someone like myself it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity so I tried to enjoy every minute of it," he said.