It's a slog for Richmond and coach Adem Yze at the moment.
After putting in a solid performance for three quarters, the young Tiger cubs were outgunned and out ran by Melbourne in the final term as another blowout dimmed an otherwise positive performance.
The Tigers also have more injuries concerns with the fleet-footed Hugo Ralphsmith suffering a suspected MCL leg injury late in the game.
Richmond's fortunes with the umpires didn't help proceedings, with Yze sharing his frustration on the, at times, confusing application of the holding the ball rule during the match.
"I know that we try and tackle and you would love to get rewarded for tackling," Yze said post-match.
"I think the umpires would review every game and they would get some right and some wrong, it was just a frustrating night. I felt like we didn't get rewarded for a few of them and then got punished for others.
"You are gonna get the rough end of the stick in certain games. But like I said, you just want to get rewarded for pressure. We are a pressure team, we expect our players to put pressure on the opposition.
"If the boys are trying hard and executing good tackles, then reward it."
Heading into the game, Yze and his players had the Herculean task of taking down eight-time All-Australian ruck Max Gawn.
Yze said he was pleased with how their plan worked, utilising utility Noah Balta in the ruck to try and dampen Gawn's impact.
"Their ruck's an amazing player and in good form so we needed to try something different and we have a young ruckman who is still applying his craft in Samson Ryan, without (Toby Nankervis) in the team, we have to try and help him through that," he said.
"Noah is an experienced player and he has (rucked) before and he wants to help our footy club. I was really impressed with Noah throughout the game, not only with his ruck craft but with his helping our forwards and trying to make a contest forward of the ball.
"The plan was right and Noah executed really well, Mykelti Lefau helped out and Samson did when he had the opportunity.
"That was one part of the game that I thought was a positive."
