Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin says the Tigers won’t be scarred by another early finals exit despite being dumped out of the AFL playoffs by Port Adelaide on Sunday.

The Power brought an end to Richmond’s fairytale run with a 57-point victory to knock the Tigers out at the elimination final stage.

It is the second time in as many seasons that the Tigers have been eliminated in the first week of September action.

Cotchin believed there would be no lingering effects for his young side and was adamant they could beat their September blues come next season, particularly after sneaking into the top eight in the final round of the season following a nine-match winning streak.

“You want to go all the way through to the finals, and as a group, we are disappointed because you want to play in as many and long as you can in finals and we fell well short of it today,” he said.

“We are a proud group and we worked so hard for the year, we didn’t look like there was going to be an opportunity, but we worked ourselves into a position where there was.

“It’s a credit to the group, but the performance we put up today was really disappointing so it’s going to be a tough summer and a bitter pill to swallow.”

Cotchin also defended his decision at the coin toss to kick into a strong breeze at the northern end of Adelaide Oval.

The choice proved costly as the hosts piled on eight goals in a blistering opening term that stunned the Tigers.

“It looked like it (the wind) was going the other way, it was pretty swirly out there so I didn’t feel it was a tremendous advantage,” Cotchin said.

“It was more about the way we played in that first quarter that resulted in them kicking eight goals which is nearly what we have had averaged against us for a whole game over the last three months.”