Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is confident the Tigers can turn their fortunes around, following a slow start to the 2014 season that sees them with one win and three losses after four rounds.
The Tigers flew to Brisbane this afternoon in preparation for Thursday night’s important Round 5 match against the Lions at the Gabba, with Hardwick upbeat about their prospects.
“A lot of our indicators are just about where they need to be. We just need to get a few things right in our game. We’ve trained them over the course of the last two weeks,” Hardwick said.
“We know where we’re going wrong, we know the issues that we have to address. A lot of them aren’t personnel-driven.
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“It’s more about the ability for us to move the ball and control the ball.
“Our contested-ball game is okay. We’re managing to halve those contests with most sides.
“What we’ve got to get better at is using the ball a lot better.
“Disposal efficiency is one of our strengths, but it hasn’t been to the level that we expect this year.
“We expect it will improve over the course of the next 3-4 games.”
Hardwick also indicated that the team’s sluggish starts to games this season had been addressed during the week.
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“It was a strength of ours last year, but this year we haven’t won a first quarter, apart from the Carlton game,” he said.
“We’ve looked at that . . . it’s developing into a bit of a trend at the moment.
“We’re having shots (for goal), but we’re not actually hitting the scoreboard. We’ve just got to make sure when we do get those opportunities, we hit the scoreboard.
“So, we’ll try a few different things this week to try and get the scoreboard flowing our way.”