Richmond will continue to examine ways to combat lapses of form within games, after yesterday’s disappointing loss to North Melbourne.

The Tigers played some of their best football of the season in the first half of the game at Etihad Stadium, building a 35-point lead at the main break.

However, a run of eight-straight goals by the Kangaroos in the third quarter undid all of Richmond’s hard work.

“North Melbourne got a bit of a run on, and we couldn’t stop it, so we’ve got to get better at that, and it’s really simple things… contested ball and defending really well,” Tigers’ ruckman Ivan Maric said on Monday morning.

“It’s hard to stop when a team’s got a run on like that, but it doesn’t mean you can’t. We’ve just got to look at why we couldn’t stop it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The loss left the Tigers with just three wins for the season so far.

"It's hard to accept the way we're playing because I feel like we are so much better than what we're producing right now," Maric said.

"I know we're just not doing the little things we were last year. Last year is last year and I don't want to talk about that too much. For me it's all about the little things, that's the foundation of our game."

Maric denied the Tigers’ second half fadeout against North Melbourne was due to a lack of fitness.

"We're fit enough, there's no issue about that," he said.

"I can honestly say I was running hard the whole game. I can't comment on everyone else, we haven't had the review.

"Look, compared to last week when the effort wasn't there, I felt like [on Sunday] night there was a huge improvement in effort and running hard.

"For me it's so simple, it’s the contested ball and we've got to win that.

"We need to build that confidence. I feel like we are, otherwise we wouldn't have produced that first half last night so next week it's got to become two good halves."