Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is resolute in his belief the Tigers are on the right path despite a form slump, which has seen them lose six of their past seven games.

“Look, I fully understand the frustration of our members and supporters right now, but believe me, our players and coaches share that same sentiment,” Hardwick wrote in his weekly email message to Tiger members.

“Clearly, we’d love to have more wins on the board at this stage of the season.  But I think the fact we’ve been right in the contest more times this year than last year, is a definite sign of improvement.

“We’ve lost four games by 20 points or under and had a draw, so it’s a bit of a sliding doors situation there . . . you take a couple of opportunities in certain games and things are looking a lot brighter.  Whereas, if you don’t, you find yourselves where we are at the moment.

“We are in a bit of a hole right now and the players have lost some self-belief.  That’s what we’re working on to restore, so they can play the good football we know they’re capable of in the back-end of this season.

“For the majority of the year, our players have had a genuine thirst for the contest, but we just need to get back to that, so we can start playing our best footy again.”

Hardwick also mentioned the importance of the Tigers not deviating from their pathway . . .

“As a club, what we’ve got to do, is stick strongly to the plan we have in place,” he said.

“When I took over the coaching job 18 months ago, we knew it was going to be a tough, bumpy road, and this patch at the moment is testimony to that.

“We’ve just got to persevere and keep playing those players we believe are going to take the Club forward. 

“At the end of the day, we know exactly where we are at, but, more importantly, we know where we are going . . .”