Fill-in Richmond coach Brendon Lade said he was happy with the application of his young players despite a 60-point loss to Fremantle in their opening NAB Challenge clash of 2016.

Save for the back-half of the second quarter, the young Tigers couldn't match it on the scoreboard with a star-studded Dockers outfit in Mandurah, but Lade said his charges could take heart from their performance.

"Our guys battled pretty hard all day," Lade said.

"Some of our kids today were very, very good, our first, second and third year players. Obviously the scoreboard didn't reflect exactly what we wanted but we're preparing for round one as best we can and we think this is our best preparation going towards that."

Richmond lost a man in the first half with key forward Ty Vickery taken out of the game in the opening quarter.

Vickery was extremely groggy as a trainer helped him off the ground, but Lade said the club had not determined what happened.

"I'm not sure exactly what happened with Ty," Lade said.

"He came off the ground and there was something with his head. I'm not sure if he got knocked or (it was) heat stroke or (he was) dehydrated. We'll get some tests done and find out. Hopefully he'll be right next week."

Ben Griffiths copped a heavy knock in a ruck contest with Aaron Sandilands and would need to be monitored.

Lade said barring any injuries the Tigers would be pretty close to full strength next Saturday when they face Hawthorn at Beaconsfield.

- with richmondfc.com.au