Experienced Richmond defender Troy Chaplin believes the Tigers need to “grow up and act like men” if they are to turn their spluttering season around.
An angry Chaplin declared it was time to get to the heart of why the Tigers sat 13th on the ladder with just two wins from six rounds.
"We need to challenge one another and take the feedback and be honest with one another," Chaplin said.
"We have got respect for one another. We need to challenge one another and put it on one another to improve as a group, and individually as well, and that goes for me as well."
Chaplin acknowledged the players were making critical mistakes that enabled the opposition to score from turnovers, and they knew they were not performing to expectations, both internal and external.
"I'm spewing with the way we've been playing at the moment, and I'm not the only one," Chaplin said.
"There are not one or two players to improve . . . it's every single one of us."
Chaplin emphasised that the group needed to remain united to address the challenges they now faced.
He said it was the players, rather than coach Damien Hardwick, who should be feeling the heat for the performances.
"At the moment, we're letting him down as a playing group," Chaplin said.
Despite the hard conversations ahead, Chaplin remained confident the group would stay strong and emerge better for the experience.
"The journey is never going to be easy," Chaplin said.
"If we start to fracture as a group, that is when the Club can unfold and go back to the dark days, and we don't want that as a group."
According to Chaplin, part of the solution was to train under pressure even more than they have been, in a bid to eradicate mistakes made in games.
Dropped marks and poor kicks during the third quarter of last Saturday’s match against North Melbourne were costly, as the team conceded seven goals.
"Those errors are silly mistakes that are undefendable at times," Chaplin said.
Get all the match day information for Sunday's match against Collingwood
Richmond had as many handballs as kicks against the Kangaroos, and 28 more handballs than kicks against Geelong the previous week, but Chaplin was quick to point out that wasn't part of the Tigers' game plan.
"For some reason, we've forced ourselves into trying to play quick, flat-out football," he said.
"We need to execute a lot better, and that doesn't mean playing that handball happy game. We're a good, skilful team by foot."
Richmond plays Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday.
