No use crying: NewmanBy Adam McNicol
4:24 PM Tue 05 Jul, 2011AFTER Richmond suffered a 103-point thumping from Carlton last weekend, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was adamant he never wanted to speak about the game again.
While that hasn't quite been the case, Richmond captain Chris Newman insists the players are now firmly focused on restoring the club's pride when they take on Essendon at the MCG on Saturday night.
"I think you've got to move on as quickly as possible," Newman said at the ME Bank Centre on Tuesday.
"Obviously we had the Sunday to dwell on it and on the Monday we addressed a few things as a playing group.
"There's no point crying about it for too long. You've just got to move on and look forward to the challenge this week."
In his media conference after the loss to Carlton, Hardwick stated that, "It's probably the first time this year we haven't had a crack."
Newman and his teammates were stung by the comments, but understood their coach's frustration at the same time.
"It didn't sit very well," Newman said. "Obviously the playing group was pretty upset after the game.
"To experience a loss of more than 100 points is always a devastating feeling after the game.
"That was the most disappointing thing. It was a big stage and our supporters came out and showed up for us, so to dish up that kind of performance was an embarrassing feeling.
"Our efforts weren't anywhere near good enough and we just have to try and dust ourselves off.
"We've set ourselves to have a big week on the track and to get back on track for this season."
The grey cloud that has hung over Richmond all season is its inability to start games well.
So far in 2011, the Tigers have been in front only once at quarter-time.
"It's a big problem," Newman said. "With a young group, it's really important to get off to a good start or at least be competitive in the first quarter.
"We have been reasonably disappointing in our first-quarter efforts, but I think it's just part of our development.
"We to turn up to play footy. I think with big games, like on the weekend, we need to start handling the crowds a bit better than what we do.
"We have addressed it, there's no doubt … but I think if you start looking too much into the pre-game routines then you're kidding yourself."
Richmond beat Essendon by 16 points when the teams last met in the Dreamtime game in round nine.
That match drew more than 83,000 fans and another big turnout is expected on Saturday night.
"Our performance last time was good, but that counts for nothing," Newman said.
"As you saw last week, Essendon were up and about and they really set the benchmark for defensive pressure against Geelong and really took it up to them from the first bounce.
"We've got our work cut out for us this week."
The skipper is adamant his young Richmond team has not been robbed of its self-belief, despite losing three of its past four matches.
"There's no doubt that the group's been sensational in keeping the faith, and the group's really sure in the direction we're headed," Newman said.
"That hasn't taken a hit at all. We're steadfast about making improvements this year and we want to put on a good performance this week."
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