Richmond captain Trent Cotchin has urged the Tigers to build on the positive gains made in Sunday’s five-point loss to Geelong at the MCG.

Although bemoaning a costly slow start, which saw the Cats jump out to a 35-point lead during the second term, Cotchin was optimistic about Richmond’s prospects following this week’s bye.

“I thought our competitiveness was back to where we expect it to be,” Cotchin told ‘Roar Vision’.

“We had some really stern conversations early this week, and we backed it up with some actions . . .

“That first quarter really let us down.  In the end, it was the difference in the result.

“But we showed a lot of fight, a lot of spirit, and now it’s our challenge to carry that through training over the next couple of weeks and then into the game v the ‘Dees’ (Melbourne) . . .

“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the loss, but I think there’ll be a lot of positives that we can take in after the bye. 

“It’s not where we want to be, come Round 7 (two wins, five losses), but it is the reality.

“We’ve got to make sure that the positives we do take out of today’s game, we carry them not just into the games against good sides, but also teams that are around us, or below us.

“It just goes to show, with the results over every weekend, that there are no easy games anymore.

“We’ve got to come, set to go, week in, week out.”