The Richmond players will have no problems finding the necessary incentive to give their all throughout the remaining weeks of the home-and-away season, despite a finals berth in 2016 now seeming well out of reach, according to star Tiger key forward Jack Riewoldt.

“It’s all about the little battles you’ve got to find towards the end of the season,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy’s ‘AFL 360’ program last night.

“I’ll still go out there and play for my pride and my football club.  And guys are going to be playing for possibly their careers, or to continue to cement their spot, or whatever they find their individual motivation to be. 

“But, ultimately, we go out there as a group of 22 guys on the weekend and we’ll play for the pride of the jumper.”

Riewoldt admitted he felt frustrated with Richmond’s on-field decline this season.

“We had three really good seasons in terms of putting some good wins on the board.  Unfortunately (we) couldn’t get it done in finals, and no-one really saw this coming,” Riewoldt said.

“The biggest thing for us is we’ve got to deal with it the best we can and learn from it . . .

“We’ve got to learn the lessons from the start of the season.  We started really poorly – one (win) and six (losses) – and that makes it really hard to make any sort of impact on the season . . .

“The back end of the season, the last eight games, we’ve got to find out a little bit about ourselves, we’ve got to be strong with each other, and we’ve got to put the Club in a position that it can move forward into 2017.”

Riewoldt also paid a huge tribute to star Richmond key defender and reigning Jack Dyer Medallist Alex Rance, who continues to perform at such a consistently, impressively high level, regardless of the team’s form.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever played with . . .  He’s a guy that you can certainly build your football club around,” Riewoldt said.