Richmond coach Damien Hardwick dissects Thursday night’s 36-point loss to Adelaide.
On where the game was won and lost …
"It’s not often that we’ve been touched up by close to 50 (192 – 144) around the contest; that was incredibly disappointing. The game has been around for over 150 years and it’s a pretty simple concept. You win the ball and it goes forward, you don’t, it goes the other way.
“I just thought they (the Crows) out-hunted us and outworked us. It (contested ball) has been a characteristic of our play, the way we play the game but we just got beaten, I thought, in the air and at ground level tonight.
“All credit to the Crows, they played a great brand of footy.”
On defender Alex Rance’s battle with Josh Jenkins, who kicked five goals …
"He (Rance) wasn’t quite himself in the first half, but credit where credit is due, he got himself back playing some good footy. He started to back himself a little bit more, which is the Alex we know.
"I thought Josh was really good early. He might’ve finished with five (goals), I think, and Tex (Walker) kicked four, so those two big boys hurt us on the scoreboard tonight.”
On the contributions outside of Dustin Martin, who starred with five goals from 25 possessions …
"I can have five Dustin Martins on the ground, but the reality is if you go down by 50 contested ball you’re not going to win. We expect our next tier to come through and play a little better than they did tonight. They’ve normally done that every time we’ve asked.
“There was a lot of guys that had a down night on the same night. Taking nothing away from the Crows, but we expect a better result moving forward."
On how Adelaide was able to break through Richmond’s revered defensive system …
“It was probably a similar game to (Round Six) last year in a way when they looked big and strong all over the ground. I think the inside 50m count was pretty even in the first three quarters and then they had 20-odd in the last, which definitely skewed it their way.
“I think they probably changed a little bit of the way they moved the ball. They probably weren’t as aggressive with their ball movement through the middle and they chipped and charged a little bit. I think they had, in the second half, 40-50 more uncontested marks than us as well. I think they had a similar style of game versus Geelong in the Prelim Final last year where they had 126 uncontested marks, so it’s something we’ll put in the memory bank and look at.
“Sides chop and change how they play a little bit. We’ll have a look at it and adjust some of our defensive philosophies going forward.”
On whether not playing a dedicated second ruck had an influence on the result …
“The clearances were pretty even, I think, but they did score nine goals from stoppages which is a large amount. I think we got beaten from that part of the game tonight. Nine is an enormous total from stoppages, so whether it’s all got to do with the smaller ruck I’m not sure. It’s something we look at.”
On what the Tigers can take out of the game …
“I said this last year with our journey, you learn more from your losses than you do your wins. We’ll get to work on some areas of our game that got shown up tonight.
“We played a quality opposition, there’s no doubt about that. They’re outstanding and on their home turf are very hard to beat. The game was pretty close for three-and-a-bit quarters, but we let it get away at the end.
“Credit where credit is due, I thought Adelaide were terrific tonight.”
