Richmond star Brett Deledio says he’s surprised by Fremantle’s horror start to the AFL season and feels a win isn’t far away.

But he’s hoping it doesn’t come as soon as Saturday when the Tigers take on the Dockers at Domain Stadium.

“I’m surprised; they’re a very well-coached team and a good team so I’m sure they will bounce back,” the Tigers’ vice-captain said of the winless 2015 minor premiers.

“They’re a bit similar to us, just a slow start, but we’ll hope that that stays slow for this week.”

The Tigers snapped their own six-game losing streak with a one-point win over high-flying Sydney last round, which Deledio called a great reward for their ongoing hard work.

He said the team weren’t getting carried away with the victory, given it was only their second of the season.

But he said the hard-fought win had given Richmond self-belief ahead of their journey west.

They can also take confidence from their round-10 clash last year at Domain Stadium where they triumphed by 27 points to end the Dockers’ nine-game winning run to start the season.

“It’s always nice to have a win, but we fully understand where we sit at the moment,” Deledio said.

“It’s always good to get away and we tend to play pretty well over there in Perth.

“We’ve been working pretty hard the last few weeks and the wheel is slowly starting to turn but we’ve got plenty of work to do.”