The Suns, whose highest finish to date is 14thon the AFL ladder, currently sit in fifth place and have won five of their last six matches.
While Suns captain Gary Ablett has been a regular top performer for the Suns, Richards said the Gold Coast team has made significant improvements across the board this season, which has contributed to their dramatic rise.
“They’ve really impressed,” Richards told SwansTV.
“They’ve just played a really good brand of footy and in particular their attack has been really good.
“There is so much said about Gary Ablett, but we’re seeing all these other guys really get a lot of respect and recognition throughout the AFL and with a lot of them being such high draft picks, we knew it was going to happen.”
Among those who have stepped up this season include the Suns’ tall forwards, including Tom Lynch (who leads the competition in contested marks), Charlie Dixon and Sam Day.
Richards said the Gold Coast forwards would pose a challenge for the Swans given they possess both height and mobility.
“Not only are they tall, but they are very athletic too, so we’ve got a big job ahead,” he said.
“They’ve got Tom Lynch and Charlie Dixon, but they’ve also got (Sam) Day, who is about two metres tall and he gets down there.”
Richards will again line up alongside his defensive partner and great mate Heath Grundy, who is set to play his 150th career game this Sunday.
Richards, who has played alongside Grundy for the last eight seasons, said he has always admired the way ‘Reg’ has gone about his business on-field.
“It’s good to see Reg play his 150th game, because it means he’s now a life member and he gets the photo up on the wall, and he’ll be pointing it out to us all,” Richards joked.
“But seriously, I’ve got a lot of respect for ‘Reg’ because in my opinion, I think he plays one of the toughest positions on the field at centre-half back.
“He just rolls in each week and just does his job with no fanfare and internally we all respect Reg so much.”
The full-back added that he felt he and Grundy had forged a strong partnership, with both players determined to drive each other both on game day and at training.
“We both push each other a lot, and we’ve got a great relationship off the field as well,” he said.
“At training we also make sure we’re getting the best out of each other and I think Reg is able to consistently play because he pushes himself so much and prepares so well for training and games.
“He doesn’t miss training sessions and gets himself in great condition throughout pre-season, and it’s not surprise that he gets through games.”
Richards said that determination was also a feature of the club’s back six, who have enjoyed a purple patch of form over the last month, including last week’s effort to keep Geelong to just five goals.
“We pride ourselves on being a hard team and being a hard defence to score against and we’ve had pretty good numbers in the last few years,” he said.
“We needed to get back to helping each other and if (the opposition) are going to score goals, we wanted to really make them earn them.
“It was good to see the score against Geelong because we’ve got a lot of respect for their forwards and they’ve got some talented players.”
