Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is extremely confident the key on-field issue that contributed to the team’s 49-point loss to Greater Western Sydney at Giants Stadium last Saturday is a quick fix.

Hardwick claimed the Tigers’ lack of cleanliness with their ball use led to the hefty defeat, the Giants continually punishing turnovers on the scoreboard.

He maintains, however, that it’s only a short-term problem.

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“The inside-50 entries were pretty even, but I thought we failed to connect from our midfield going inside 50 as well as we would have liked,” Hardwick said.

“There were times where you’d look at it and it’s like, oh, Richmond are out here . . . oh, geez, they’ve dropped the ball, or they’ve missed a handball, which has then gone back the other way.

“Obviously our defence has been caught off guard because we’re pushing up the ground, and they’re out the back. That’s what happened for the vast majority of the night.

“But that’s in our control. We’ll fix that, there’s no doubt about that. We’ll get better at that.

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“Those goals we can eradicate pretty quickly with some training, some confidence-building . . . those sort of things.

“I thought our effort was pretty good throughout the night, but just their power in the end overwhelmed us . . .

“There were some positive signs for the way we played with a relatively inexperienced back six that are going to take us forward. But we’ve certainly got some work to do in some areas.”