Although Richmond’s qualifying final loss to Brisbane at the Gabba last night has confined it to a cut-throat, semi-final clash with either St Kilda or the Western Bulldogs, rather than instant passage into a preliminary final, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick remains upbeat about the team’s prospects in the 2020 AFL finals series.
“Obstacle? Opportunity? We look at it as an opportunity,” Hardwick said.
“For us, it’s all about the growth we can take out of the game.
“There’s a lot of areas I thought we played poorly in tonight that we can get better next week. Those are in our control, which is a real positive for us . . .
“The polish, we just didn’t quite have tonight. So, we’ve just got to get that better.
“That’s the difference in a game, especially a big game like this.
“I thought they were a lot cleaner going across the arc than what we were. So, that’ll be an area we’ll look to improve this week . . .
“We sort of look at a loss as a gift, as funny as that may seem.
“We’ll get to work, and there’s a couple of things we can take out of the game that’ll certainly get us better for next week’s opponent . . .
“We don’t really care who we play, we’re just looking forward to getting back out and playing a hell of a lot better than we did tonight.”
