Richmond coach Damien Hardwick attributes 30 minutes of bad football for yesterday’s loss to Carlton at the MCG.

The Tigers held a 30-point lead at quarter time after a dominant opening, but let the Blues back into the match by half time, and eventually went down by 10 points.

"You never like to lose. It was a good kick in the backside," said coach Damien Hardwick of the loss.

"The second quarter was where it was won and lost. They hit us incredibly hard after that quarter-time break. They obviously got a fair rocket and they came out and played some hard footy. Credit where it is due. They were better than us during that part of the game.

"I thought we were a little bit clumsy. We overused the ball at times and we thought we would be a little bit better than we produced.

"Whether our guys were so far in front they could take some liberties, well, that's not what good sides do. We'll look and learn and we have to get better in some areas. There's no doubt about that."

Hardwick reported afterwards that skipper Trent Cotchin just had a bad day after being held to eight possessions by Ed Curnow and he held few concerns over a knock to the knee that hobbled Cotchin. Forward Ricky Petterd strained a hamstring and the severity of that will become clear early next week.

Small forward Matt White missed with soreness, a call that was made 90 minutes before the bounce and was more precautionary than anything.

It is the second straight week where the Tigers held a handy lead only for their opponents to get back in the game. They arrested the slide just in time against the Brisbane Lions last week, but could not hold the Blues at bay this time around.

Hardwick said he didn't see the concentration lapses as a particular area for concern and gave the praise to Carlton, whose numbers he said, belied its ninth place on the ladder.

"Proud man," he said of Blues coach Mick Malthouse, "and a proud club. They're better than the media gives them credit for."