Richmond coach Damien Hardwick's blunt assessments of Tigers performance Matt Windley
From: Herald Sun
May 25, 2013 11:57PMSOMETIMES you don't need many words to sum up a situation.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick cut straight to the point after watching his side go down to Essendon by 29 points at the MCG last night.
"We just didn't play well,'' Hardwick said.
"Essendon, to their credit, their pressure was outstanding, we gave the ball back (a lot and conceded) a number of easy goals.
"I think the scoreboard flattered us to be honest ... it felt like a 10-goal ball game at half time.
"We just couldn't get the game under control at any stage. They're a good side.''
Richmond players got sucked in to moving the ball sideways constantly last night rather than taking the game on.
It was a fact lamented by Hardwick afterwards.
"And I think sometimes what happens is you make a few mistakes and you probably tend to go in to your shell a little bit,'' he said.
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"We spoke about it again at three quarter time and finally we started to get some handball overlay (in the fourth term), but it was too little too late, the game was well and truly over by that stage.
"We just couldn't get anything up and going. We'll go and have a look at the tape and find out why and make a few adjustments.''
The loss was soured further by news that young gun Brandon Ellis will be out until after the club's bye having suffered a hamstring injury at training during the week.
The coach said Reece Conca's absence with a foot injury is likely to extend beyond the bye also.
One positive for Richmond was the the defence's ability to restrict Essendon to 13 goals.
Hardwick was full of praise for off-season recruit Troy Chaplin for keeping the scoreboard tighter than it otherwise could have been.
Of Chaplin, Hardwick said: ``He's a very good player, he's only going to get better. People forget that he had a very injury-interrupted pre-season as well so it does take a little bit of time to come in. I thought he was terrific tonight.''
He said fellow defender Alex Rance ``was outstanding too''.
Hardwick said he tried curbing Essendon captain Jobe Watson's influence with three different players throughout the night to no avail.
The Brownlow medallist was unstoppable, compiling yet another best on ground performance.
"He's just a very, very good player,'' Hardwick said.
"We spoke about his strength on the ball, there was a couple of crucial contests where he out-bodied a couple of our players.
"And his ability to use hands in and around the contest is exactly why he's a Brownlow medallist.''
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