First quarters need fixing
Richmond desperately needs to rectify its poor first quarter performances, writes Jen Witham
The Tigers' coach was a stunned figure after the game, which was reflected in his unusual move to coach the final quarter from the box and not his usual spot on the boundary.
While he was adamant the coaching staff would "bin the review", there is something Hardwick and co. will have to look at this week if the Tigers are going to recover from the mess that has become their past month, their round 13 win over the Brisbane Lions aside.
Their first quarters.
The Tigers have won just one first term this season; against Essendon in round nine, and have drawn one, against Fremantle in round seven.
Against Carlton on Saturday, they were down by 22 points by the first change, despite having just two less scoring shots than the Blues.
"It would be nice to get off to a good start. There certainly were stages but Carlton started hotter; granted after their performance last week they were always going to do that," Hardwick admitted afterwards.
"We just couldn't rectify the scoreboard at any change."
Before the game, Hardwick told 3AW the coaching staff were trialling a range of tactics to try and get the side up and moving early, to avoid a situation where they were chasing their tails all afternoon.
He didn't go into specifics, but the players' recent move to hold their final huddle before the first bounce near the goalsquare - something Collingwood started doing last season - could be one.
Drawing on the energy from the crowd could be one mechanism designed to alleviate the lethargy that has seen them forfeit 12 out of 14 quarter-time leads this season.
Another tactic could come from Hardwick's decision to leave his players on the field for the final quarter and observe from the heights of the coaches' box.
Hardwick, in his second year as a senior coach, has been a fan of coaching from the boundary in a bid to make it easier to pass on direct feedback to his players; many of who are still learning.
He abandoned that when the Tigers trailed by 89 points at the final change in a view to next week.
"We just spoke to our guys at three-quarter time about how we start the last quarter is how we want to start next week's game," Hardwick said.
"Forget the scoreboard, zero-zero; we just want to play for next week.
"We just wanted to get upstairs and let the players dictate their own and watch them from that scenario and it was just a different aspect to have a look at it."
The review this week won't exist but you can bet there will be some discussion about the Tigers' lack of resilience, determination and resistance.
"It's probably the first time we've been categorically thrashed in a hell of a lot of areas; granted our form against the Dees wasn't great last week but at least we came back and fought our way into the game," Hardwick said.
"We didn't show any fight at any stage today."
Next week, the Tigers meet the Bombers in a rematch of their round nine Dreamtime at the 'G win.
In that game, they led by one point at quarter-time and trailed by one at half-time before kicking away slightly in the third term.
Whatever they did that week to lead early on and stay physically and emotionally involved in the contest will need to be recaptured if they're to do similar to Carlton and rebound from a disappointing loss.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club