When your glass has been empty and someone adds water it is easier to see it as half-full rather than as half-empty. After playing some of their best football of the year for chunks of the game, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was happier with the Tigers' performance regardless of Hawthorn's nine-goal last quarter and the 46-point final margin of defeat.
The Tigers registered their sixth straight loss when they went down to the Hawks; thrice they held the lead in the match, at one stage by 18 points, and they moved the ball at a pace unseen this year.
"We spoke about that to the players after the game. Don't get me wrong, we are incredibly disappointed to lose games but three-quarters of the game we were pretty good in the contest. It is easy just to look at the last quarter and feel down, but the reality is we played pretty reasonable football for three quarters," Hardwick said.
"So we are disappointed that we lost the game ... but there were certainly some positives to come out of the game tonight.
He added: "It was disappointing to go down like we did in the last quarter, we got belted around in clearances and contested ball in that last quarter. The first three quarters I thought were commendable. The effort and intensity were there, we played some good footy, (we) just weren't good enough in the end."
Hardwick said captain Trent Cotchin would play next week after suffering a fractured cheekbone in round six, while Alex Rance and Dylan Grimes would both come in while Reece Conca would play his first VFL game of the year on his return to the senior side.
Richmond moved the ball quickly for some periods and looked to play with a determination to take the ball on.
"It was good from that point of view, the players took the game on a bit more. (But) we had some bits of play where Hawthorn were a bit too classy and made some sound decisions, we probably coughed it up and turned the ball over.
"We took some steps forward tonight, we get some personnel back next week. I was excited to see some of the young players do some good things, Corey Ellis I thought again showed he is going to be a good player for us, Menadue did some good things. we have some upside but we have to get some wins on the board."
Shaun Hampson did well in the ruck after Ivan Maric was dropped to the VFL.
"It was very tough on Ivan. He is a spiritual leader of the group but he just isn't playing as good football as we would like, he has had a serious injury, a back complaint, and he is not moving as freely as we would like, so go back to the VFL and get a run."
