Richmond head into Friday night's clash with St Kilda coming off last week's two-point loss to GWS, but a swag of changes is unlikely given coach Damien Hardwick said he was relatively pleased overall with the showing in Sydney.

Forwards Sam Lloyd and Tyson Stengle are pressing for selection after strong form in Richmond VFL's 85-point win over North Melbourne last Saturday.

"You look at all the indicators that we value and we won all those (against GWS). It was just one of those games that they made the most of their chances and we didn't," he said.

"Whilst disappointed we walked away with a loss, we were pretty happy with 80 per cent of how we played."

The Tigers sit on top of the ladder, percentage ahead of second-placed West Coast, in what is shaping as an exciting run to the finals for top-four aspirants.

And while the AFL looks intent on introducing sweeping changes to improve the look of the game, Hardwick cautioned the League against going too far, citing the evenness of this year's competition.

"You've got to be careful what you wish for. If you want to see more goals, you're going to see more blowouts. So be very careful about how we structure things up," last year's premiership coach said.

"We value, as coaches, three facets of the game: offence, defence and contest. And if we want to establish one phase more than the others, the better sides are going to get better.

"You've got to be very careful about which way we go. I'm all for the progression of the game and what that looks like, but we've also got a very, very good competition at the moment.

"We're at round 18 and there's a lot of sides vying for top-four and top-eight spots."