Richmond started brilliantly at Subiaco Oval, kicking the first five goals in their best effort of the season, but couldn’t keep it going as Hardwick's young side ran out of legs.
Tambling hurt his hamstring to end his 100th game prematurely and second-gamer Taylor injured his medial ligament to leave the Tigers two men short.
"We just didn’t have the run in the legs. We lost a couple of soldiers along the way ... so that didn’t help our cause over the day," Hardwick said.
"(Tambling) has got a hamstring, we aren’t sure of the damage. He'll be assessed further in the week and it's disappointing for him in his 100th game. He was a solid contributor up until that point. I think it's only a slight medial (for Taylor) so we'll have to get that further assessed also."
Robin Nahas was outstanding for the Tigers with 18 possessions, seven tackles and three goals. Ben Cousins had 23 disposals and Nathan Foley was outstanding with 25 possessions.
"Nahas was terrific," Hardwick said. "The reason he went out of the side was that his defensive efforts weren’t up to scratch so he acknowledged that and went back to work on it and came back in and took a step forward.
"Cuz was serviceable and added to some possession chains for us. (Foley) was terrific. You could tell he probably needed a hit-out, but he's only going to get better because he hasn’t played footy for a long time."
Richmond now faces the daunting prospect of Geelong at Skilled Stadium next Sunday and Hardwick wants to see his young side take it up to the reigning premiers.
"That's something we look forward to and we don’t run away from the challenge, we approach it head on. It's a chance for Dustin Martin to go against a Joel Selwood to learn a few things off his game," Hardwick said.
"It is bloody daunting at the same time, don't get me wrong, but it's an exciting period for our club where we can put those players against the best in the competition."
