Being exposed defensively by Carlton in round 21 was the timely "kick up the backside" that Richmond needed, says coach Damien Hardwick.

The teams play each other again this Sunday in an elimination final, just three weeks after the Tigers coughed up a comfortable early lead to lose just their seventh game for the season.

They led by five goals at quarter-time only to lose by 10 points after conceding 13 goals to six after the first break.

Hardwick said the players had learned from the hard lessons, and a tough post-mortem of the game, in the weeks following. 

"Even though we kicked eight goals in that first quarter, we were defensively not to the standard we needed to be," Hardwick said on Tuesday.

"I think it smoothed over a few cracks and I think our record since then has been pretty good. Defensively as a side, it's an area we've improved enormously not only over the course of 12 months but in three to four years.

"We certainly look forward to taking that into the elimination final this week."

Hardwick said there was no telling if the Blues would employ similar tactics this week but still believed it was handy they had played Mick Malthouse’s team so recently.

"We had some things that didn't go our way that day. Trent [Cotchin] didn't have a great game, Dusty [Martin] didn't have a great game, so we had a lot of players who were down," he said.

"We certainly got a look at what they did and how they put work into those players.

"Whether they come out the same, who knows, but at least we had a look at it some three weeks ago."

Hardwick said Chris Newman and Jack Riewoldt were "locks" to play but Matt White – who hurt his hamstring on Saturday night against Essendon, was a 50-50 prospect.

He also said retiring veteran Shane Tuck was in with a chance of holding his spot and was doing all he could to finish his career in a final.