Interim Richmond coach Andrew McQualter has provided a considered assessment of the team’s loss to Melbourne at the MCG yesterday.

The Tigers led by 20 points early in the third quarter before the Demons gradually wore them down, scoring the last six goals of the match to run out 32-point winners.

“Probably two and a half quarters of the game, I thought we were right in the fight, really competitive, and giving ourselves every chance. And then, last quarter, they were just too good, really . . . around the ball mainly,” McQualter said in his post-game press conference.

“Clearly, they got dominant in the clearance part of the game and from there we just struggled to get the ball out of our defensive 50.

“It just became a bit too overwhelming.”

McQualter, however, remains upbeat about the Tigers’ prospects in the last month of the home-and-away season, starting with a big game against Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, off a five-day break.

“We think we can be better, we’re in a rush to get better, and we’re going to find some things out of this game that we’ll be able to get better at for next week,” McQualter said.

“I think the beauty of 2020 (in the Covid-affected season), what we learned is we love turning around really quickly those games and playing off four and five-day breaks . . .

“The players don’t have to train much. They actually enjoy that.

“They get to roll out and play within five days.

“So, it won’t be a massive week on the track . . .

“We’ll roll out pretty quickly and really excited to get there at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.”