Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has taken several positives out yesterday’s narrow loss to premiership contender Geelong at the MCG.

The Tigers boldly fought back from a six-goal deficit late in the second quarter, to get within five points of the highly-rated Cats at the final siren.

“Apart from the initial quarter and a bit, I thought our two and a half to three quarters was pretty good,” Hardwick said in his post-match media conference.

“I thought we controlled the ball pretty well.  We probably overused it at stages, but I thought our intensity and effort was good.

“We just made a couple of critical errors and, against good sides, they come back to haunt you at stages.

“To give the guys some credit, they fought back well.

“I thought (Reece) Conca was enormous tonight . . . Dustin (Martin), Nick Vlastuin, Brandon Ellis, those guys who are looking to take the next step, to play against a quality opposition, and play quite well, was a big tick for us.

“In saying that, we lost.  Commend the effort, but the result is still unacceptable.”

Hardwick also reserved praise for star midfielder Brett Deledio and key defender Alex Rance, who both returned to the Richmond line-up following several weeks on the sidelines due to injury.

“We knew those guys would make a difference,” he said.

“Rance was enormous.  He’s a very under-rated player and Deledio and (Shaun) Grigg did a job on (Joel) Selwood.  His impact was probably not to his normal level.

“So, we were pleased with the performance of those two, and we think they’re only going to get better.”