Richmond has been comprehensively defeated by North Melbourne, trailing all night to fall by 70 points at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena on Friday night.

Already down by 25 points at the main break, Richmond conceded the opening five goals of the second half within ten minutes of the third quarter getting underway, and were never realistically in the hunt as North powered to the line.

The Tigers woes were compounded by injuries on the night, with Dylan Grimes getting a sore hamstring in the warm-up, replaced in the side by Troy Chaplin.

He was the first of four Tigers to fall, with just one fit player left on the bench by the final siren.

Steven Morris was stretchered from the ground with a knee injury nine minutes after the first bounce.

Key forward Ben Griffiths was visibly in pain, grabbing at his ankle, and taken off mid-way through the third quarter, while Nick Vlastuin was sidelined with concussion after knocking his cheekbone.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick refused to blame the injuries for his side’s defeat, pointing to a lacklustre opening quarter as the first sign of his side’s demise.

“You can sit there and say we’ve got some injuries but the reality is they were very good early and we were poor,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is I felt the game was over at quarter-time. We were probably lucky to be in it at that stage.”

When the Tigers managed possession they scrambled kicks and quickly lost the ball.

Missed opportunities were costly for Richmond in the first quarter with Ty Vickery, Corey Ellis and Kane Lambert each missing goals that would have kept Richmond up to speed.

Their best included Shaun Grigg with 38 disposals and Shaun Hampson with 51 hit outs, while Jack Riewoldt and Vickery top-scored with two goals each.