Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers won’t be using their remaining AFL matches this season to try out any youngsters, as their days of handing out games are over.

While Richmond’s finals hopes are realistically gone, Hardwick said the Tigers’ only aim was to win every game and develop a side that produced consistently strong football.

He said while the previous two seasons were largely about list development, this year was about results, even if that did not mean a top eight berth.

“Our guys will play on merit,” Hardwick told reporters on Friday.

“We want to win every game we can.

“We still want to end up with a positive win-loss record.

“At the moment we’re 8-10, if we can end up 12-10 that’s an outstanding result.

“Whether it gets us in the finals is yet to be seen, but we just want to win every game possible.”

Hardwick said it would have been easy for his players to dip mentally when their finals chances were effectively extinguished by three straight losses by less than a goal from rounds 16-18.

He said the fact that they bounced back to beat Brisbane by eight goals at the Gabba last round was a credit to the side’s senior players.

“It is quite easy to drop away when you realise some hope has been extinguished,” Hardwick said.

“But Chris Newman and the leadership group really took it upon themselves to drive that last week and we got a pleasing performance.

“It’s always hard to travel to Brisbane, you’re probably four goals behind before you start with the home ground advantage so it was a great result.”

The Tigers have a strong chance to post another win at the MCG on Sunday, when they meet the Western Bulldogs, who are on a seven-game losing streak.

But Hardwick said Richmond were more interested in their own form.

“It’s really important – sides that play a consistent good brand of footy just worry about what they do and we’re starting to get to that stage now,” he said.

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