After watching his charges defeat ladder leader Hawthorn by 41 points at the MCG last Saturday, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick confirmed he is not surprised by the Tigers’ ability to close the gap on the competition’s best teams.

“We always thought we were capable of playing that style of footy.  The challenge for our group, moving forward, is consistency, and whether we can do that over the course of the next four weeks onwards,” Hardwick said.

“We spoke about that gap, Sydney obviously exploited that. We managed to close it against Hawthorn, but the challenge is to, week in, week out, prove there isn’t one.”

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Although the Tigers are playing strong football at the moment, Hardwick feels there are still some areas in their game that need work. 

“The inconsistency between quarters has probably showed its head at various stages this year . . . We’ve certainly worked on things and rectified those areas, but we’ve still got a fair way to go,” he said.

Richmond takes on the Brisbane Lions this Saturday at the MCG in a match that Hardwick believes won’t be an easy one, due to the Lions’ recent good form.

“It’s going to be a really tough game on the weekend.  Granted they’ve lost Jonathan Brown, but the flexibility of their side is very important to them. They’ve got some quality players,” Hardwick said.

“We’re just looking forward to the challenge of playing Brisbane on Saturday and getting the result we’re after.

“There is no ceiling on where we want to finish, and that’s a challenge to our guys.”