Richmond urgently need to fix a waste problem threatening to drain their AFL finals ambition, coach Damien Hardwick says.
The Tigers lost to Adelaide by 19 points on Saturday – despite dominating nearly every statistic and leading by 33 points at quarter-time.
Richmond had more scoring shots, more inside 50s, more kicks, more handballs, more marks, more tackles, more hit-outs.
But they remain clogged in a bunch of clubs outside the top eight, with six wins and seven losses for the year.
“We just didn’t make the most of our opportunities … it has been a common trend over the last couple of weeks and is something we have got to fix,” Hardwick said.
The lack of forward line polish as Adelaide won 17.4 (106) to 13.9 (87) alarmed Hardwick.
“We had more inside 50s, more forward half turnovers – a lot of stats were going our way,” he said.
“We realise it (the forward line) is the development area of our structure. We have just got to make sure we keep working on that and get those guys better.”
Solace for Hardwick was fellow mid-ladder clubs Carlton and Fremantle also lost this round to remain level with the Tigers.
“No one really got the jump on everyone else,” he said of the results.
The Tigers expect to lose small forward Jake King for about six matches after he suffered strained medial ligaments in his left knee.