RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has admitted last year's Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt is playing sore but has backed his big forward to fight through.

The 22-year-old was well held by Melbourne defender James Frawley during Saturday's 27-point loss to the Demons at the MCG, which saw end a month of quiet performances.

Against Melbourne, Riewoldt kicked one goal, three behinds, had two goal assists and three inside 50s among his 13 possessions.

Before Saturday, he had kicked just seven goals in the Tigers' past three games; three against Port Adelaide, two against the Sydney Swans and two against the Brisbane Lions.

Hardwick conceded his star was hurting but backed him to play through it.

"Yeah … he takes to the field so he's OK," he said, when asked if Riewoldt was playing hurt.

"He's battling like most players in the AFL at the moment, they're all battling injury and Jack's no different.

"He can still play; he's just tired and sore like the other guys. He just has to battle on."

Hardwick was reluctant to elaborate on Riewoldt's soreness and simply conceded that it was consistent with the majority of AFL players at the round 14 mark.

"Players play sore, it's a long [season] and I don't think there's a more demanding sport in the world than what we play," he said.

"You've just got to look and guys were out on their feet in the last quarter. We had guys coming off and we were trying to get blokes back on and it's a real tough game to play. We've just got to hang tough."

Hardwick said while his players tired against Melbourne, he didn't believe it had anything to do with their past month where they had travelled to Darwin, Sydney and Brisbane for matches.

"I don't think so. I think all our players just played to a below expectation standard on the same day, which doesn't help you and you can't win games of football when you've got too many passengers," he said.

"We've got a really big challenge next Saturday with Carlton who are one of the form sides of the competition.

"We've got to take stock of what we've got to fix up but we need to move on very, very quickly."

Hardwick said the Tigers' "fundamental errors" had cost them against Melbourne, which included 32 clangers and 12 turnovers in their defensive 50 that resulted in six goals.

He also said he was frustrated by his players' lack of understanding of certain rule interpretations, specifically regarding the deliberate rushed behind rule and holding the ball.

The former resulted in a costly goal late in the third quarter when Chris Newman had the ball on the goal line and rather than rushing it through, he handpassed to Bachar Houli.

Houli then lost the ball to Jack Watts, who steadied and kicked a goal with one second remaining on the clock.

It put the Demons up by 29 points at three-quarter time after the Tigers had worked hard to reduce an earlier lead of 38, and was labelled by Hardwick as a "12-point turnaround" for the Demons kicked the first goal of the fourth.

Richmond would have been within three goals had Newman conceded the point.

"We made a number of mistakes like that today. The errors that are costing us are the simple ones we shouldn't make," he said.

"I think the guys need to get better at understanding [the rushed behind rule]. We've been through it a number of times but we just seem to play that ball right on the goal line.

"It's just a simple decision and we need to step it over. Chris never normally makes those mistakes so it's a blemish you live with.

"There's a number of holding the ball decisions we have to look at because it's becoming a bit of thing with us a the moment.

"We tend to get pinned when we're not quite sure how that's going to go."

Hardwick said the fact the Tigers were still in the contest in the last term - despite only Tyrone Vickery winning his position - showed their "poor games have improved, if you're looking for a positive".