Most of the accolades will come Drew Petrie’s way this week, and rightly so following his amazing last quarter against the Tigers, but two other individual efforts deserve special praise.

Lindsay Thomas and Leigh Adams both put their bodies on the line in the dying stages of Sunday’s thrilling win.

Just five-points separated the teams, and barely two minutes remained when Luke McGuane looked to clear from defence for the Tigers, but Thomas had other ideas, lunging desperately across his boot and affecting a brilliant smother.

Watch Thomas' smother | YouTube

“I had to throw my body at the ball. We talk about desperate acts, and it was my turn to go,” Thomas told kangaroos.com.au after the game.

“I was going to tackle him, but he (McGuane) kind of hesitated. I knew he was going to kick it so I just threw my body and fortunately I got my hands on it and it went out of bounds.”

With Richmond seemingly holding momentum, Thomas’ lunging smother was pivotal but there was still more drama ahead.

PRESS PLAY to watch Thomas & Adams interviews | YouTube

Enter Leigh Adams.

The clock had wound down to 20 seconds when Bachar Houli had a chance to run onto the ball in space and pump it into the Tigers’ 50 but Adams, carrying an injured shoulder, crashed in from the side and impacted the contest.

“I had to take the body or the ball so I didn’t have to chase him (Houli),” Adams joked.

“I knew if he got out the back I was never going to catch him, so I just had to take him and either get the ball out of bounds or try and stop it. Thank God the siren went.”

It’s these acts of desperation that won’t go down on the stats sheet, but deserve to be celebrated.