From the Age website:Amid this latest drama, vice-captain Brett Deledio says the Tigers have vowed to remain united and blame cannot be solely sheeted to coach Damien Hardwick for another poor start to the season - this time a five-game losing streak.
Hardwick said his players had been guilty of "dumb" football and bemoaned their inability to execute a game plan he had wanted.
The Tigers again failed to move the ball quickly and, too often, went wide, when a quick pass back into the centre corridor would have opened up attacking options.
Deledio, who said he was "ginger" after his first game back from a quad injury, told Fairfax Media the players and coaches would not splinter.
"He (Hardwick) will back us to the hilt. It is not his ... we are all in this together. The players, the coaches, we all have to do the hard work to where we want to go. It starts with hard work and nothing can beat that," he said.
The Tigers now face a crunch clash against Hawthorn on Friday night, with Hardwick wanting the players to use this to regain their "dignity".
The Tigers have a good recent record against the Hawks, but Alastair Clarkson's men will be stung by their 75-point loss to Greater Western Sydney. The Giants' 24.14 was the highest score the Hawks had conceded since round 13, 2005.
While the Tigers have won three of their past four matches against Hawthorn, Deledio downplayed the importance of those clashes.
"That counts for nothing. That doesn't count for anything yet. They will come off a loss as well. They will be breathing fire. We have got to get better to take it up to last year's premiers," he said.
The Tigers won the contested-ball count and clearances against the Power but were out-tackled and lacked direction, making life tough for key forward Jack Riewoldt.
Hardwick had his men behind closed doors for more than 10 minutes after the defeat. Deledio said there were a number of areas of concern.
"It is disposal. It is a mixture of a whole lot of things. I can't really hit the nail on the head with one thing. We probably didn't kick enough to the advantage of our forwards. We need a better contest down the line," he said.
"I thought some our tackle pressure wasn't too bad, our ability to win contested ball, but post that we fell away pretty quickly. I thought Shaun Grigg played a pretty handy game, Dusty was pretty good. There are positives. We can't afford to dwell completely on the negatives but we have to learn from it and get better."
The terrible start to the season has prompted an internal review, which will analyse such areas as recruiting, development and the assistant coaches. The Tigers had to rebuild through the compromised drafts in the expansion era but they overlooked players who have emerged as stars at other clubs, while a decision to top up with mature-age players has reached a ceiling.
They had hoped former Blue Chris Yarran would provide the desperately needed rebound from half-back but he is injured and remains weeks away from returning.
Ty Vickery and Ben Griffiths have not provided the consistent marking options needed alongside Riewoldt if the team was to elevate from three elimination-final defeats.
Hardwick is contracted through to the end of 2018 and the decision to reappoint him on the eve of the season will be scrutinised more if the losses mount.
Deledio said finals aspirations were not on the radar.
"I am not even looking at it. It starts with a W next week hopefully and we'll go from there," he said.
"We have got to start working hard and winning games and that starts next week. We can't afford to look too far in the future or we'll shoot ourselves in the foot. Hard work, head down, bum up."
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-captain-trent-cotchin-fractures-cheekbone-to-miss-a-fortnight-20160501-goj7vv.html
