FOR A man whose team had just been walloped by 63 points at the hand of Hawthorn, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick looked remarkably composed.

In some ways, he believed his Tigers had had a win. They'd matched the Hawks in several indicators and gained some valuable experience for their young players.

"We had more inside 50s, the clearances were the same and the turnover battle was the same," he said. "The thing that comes with experience is the efficiency of your ball movement.

"You look back last week, the Dees only got inside 50 35 times against them (Hawthorn). We got inside 50 55 times, so we're doing something right. The efficiency going forward is the thing that cost us."

While Hardwick's midfield did a sterling job in matching its opponents, the main talking points after the match were the petulance of Jack Rielwoldt and the decision to play callow defenders on the best tall forward combination in the competition.

Hardwick said he would be having a word to Riewoldt about his blow-up at Dustin Martin.

"Jack's got to improve in that area, no doubt," he said.

The coach, however, was full of praise for David Astbury, who played on Jarryd Roughead in his 20th game, and Dylan Grimes, who played on Buddy Franklin in his second game.

In truth, both were soundly beaten. Roughead kicked three while Franklin kicked five in a best-on-ground performance.

But Harwick admired his young players' application.

"I actually thought Dylan Grimes did a pretty good job. For a kid who was playing his second game, in his second year of AFL footy, the amount of contests that he got to was pretty credible for the young fellow.

"Buddy's an elite player of this competition."

He noted that Astbury was outmarked only once and besides that was extremely competitive.

"We're going along a similar path to Hawthorn in 2005, 2006, when I started there," the coach said. "We're tracking along the same way. We’ve got to persevere with our young group, get some games into them as we can, and they’ll get better."

Astbury and Grimes were forced to play in the key defence posts because Alex Rance and Luke McGuane were suspended and Will Thursfied had hurt his ankle.

David Gourdis was the only other key defender who might have been considered.