Desperate Tigers well off the pace: HardwickAnthony Colangelo
The Age
28 June 2020Defending premiers Richmond - winless since the resumption of the season and with only one triumph in four games - are in a desperate fight to rescue their 2020 campaign, according to coach Damien Hardwick.
St Kilda comprehensively beat the Tigers on Saturday , and Hardwick has put the onus on his usually "better performing" senior players to lead and arrest their slide in this compressed season before it gets too late.
"Absolutely. Absolutely it is," Hardwick said when asked if it was desperate stakes yet. "The season is short and we understand that. Every win is incredibly valuable, especially early in the season. We have got to start getting some 'Ws' in our column."
The Tigers now face a five day break before they play West Coast at the Gold Coast hub in round five. The short turnaround is a positive, he believes.
"You look at all three phases of the game we didn't perform particularly well," Hardwick said of the loss to the Saints. "We are not playing a Richmond-style game at the moment.
"A weight of numbers of our better performing players [are] not playing well enough.
"I wouldn't say there is a degree of flatness, our players played with enough energy. We didn't handle St Kilda's pressure around the ball well.
"We have been in this situation before. We have dug ourselves out of it, but we have got some work to do. We are certainly well off the pace."
Richmond were hurt badly by ill disciplined acts from Nick Vlastuin and David Astbury that led directly to goals at crucial stages of the game.
"It was really disappointing, especially the things we can control," Hardwick said. "We will deal with that this week but they're the things that are incredibly disappointing - work incredibly hard to get yourself back in the game and then give away two cheap goals in the third. We got to get better.
"That's on us."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/desperate-tigers-well-off-pace-hardwick-20200627-p556vn.html
