Richmond coach Damien Hardwick found few positives from Saturday’s win over Hawthorn in the third week of the pre-season series in Launceston.
A near full-strength Tiger outfit left it until a kick after the siren from Jack Riewoldt, to record one-point win over a Hawthorn side missing a raft of senior regulars.
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“I thought it was a pretty scrappy old game, to be perfectly honest. I thought we were poor at various stages,” Hardwick said after the game.
“It was great for the guys to close out another close win, which is a positive. We’ve got a bit of work to do though.
“Hawthorn had a truckload of players out, so we’re under no illusions that we should’ve won the game with the talent in the squad that we had in, and we just got over the line, so from our point of view it wasn’t good enough.
Watch the highlights of the Tigers’ win over Hawthorn in Launceston
“We’re progressing in the right way. We’re happy with some things we’re doing, but we’ve certainly got some areas of improvement that we need to knuckle down and sort out before we play Carlton in Round 1.”
Among the positive aspects of Richmond’s performance against the Hawks, new recruit Troy Chaplin slotted into the back six for the first time since crossing from Port Adelaide, and showed some encouraging signs.
“I thought he was impressive. He’s only going to get better. That’s the worst he’ll be – the rustiest he’ll be,” Hardwick said.
“He certainly showed the reason why we brought him across. There were a couple of crucial contests across half back that he won, and got the ball moving forward for us.”
Richmond will play the Western Bulldogs in the final week of the 2013 pre-season series, at Visy Park this Saturday, March 16, at 2pm.
We need to improve: Hardwick
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick found few positives from Saturday’s win over Hawthorn in the third week of the pre-season series in Launceston.