Richmond coach Damien Hardwick proved his optimism is still intact despite three consecutive heartbreaking losses, declaring his side’s finals hopes alive after their 48-point disposal of the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.
Hardwick was full of positivity after the win, praising his side’s ability to put the past three weeks behind them – three defeats all by less than a goal – and comfortably close out the match when the Lions reduced their lead to 14 points early in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for the club that last played finals in 2001, it’s almost certainly going to be too late to resurrect their hopes of scraping into the top eight in September.
The Tigers are 12th on the ladder with 32 points, three wins behind ninth-placed Fremantle.
They will need to win their last four matches and have a host of other results go their way.
But where there’s a will there’s a way, and with a promising run home that includes three teams currently outside the top eight (Western Bulldogs, Fremantle and Port Adelaide), Hardwick is hoping the Tigers at least extract as much momentum as possible from the weekend’s victory.
“There’s no doubt we certainly learnt some lessons over the course of our last month of footy, and the positive is we’ll bounce back and we’ll keep trying to get better,” Hardwick said.
“(We’re) still a chance … still a chance of (making) the finals.”
While the Tigers put their losing habits to bed, the Lions slumped to their fourth defeat in five matches, but more alarmingly have also lost nine of their past 10 quarters of football.
Lions coach Michael Voss labelled his side’s recent pattern of giving away the scoreboard as “purely unacceptable.”
“Some of the efforts are amazing, but once the scoreboard was gone so were we, and that’s probably the most disappointing part of the night,” Voss said.
“Once we find ourselves in a non-winnable position we’re just stopping, so it’s not what’s in-built in these guys.
“We know that we’re better than that, but we can’t afford to be sitting at the end of games and just giving away the scoreboard like what we have.”