Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has labelled Saturday night's one-point loss to Essendon as "diabolical" as Essendon finally broke their four game losing streak in a thriller.
The Dreamtime loss becomes Richmond's sixth defeat of the season, seeing the Tigers sit well outside the eight as Round 10 nears its end.
Speaking to media after the narrow loss, Hardwick conceded that he was frustrated and knew his side had to do better.
"It was a horrible game by us, to be perfectly honest. We couldn't defend 140-odd uncontested marks, it was just diabolical. It was obviously strategy coming in, we saw it with their VFL guys (earlier in the day), but we just couldn't stop it," Hardwick said.
"I thought they used the ball, controlled their defence through their offence and we just couldn't get the ball back, which was incredibly frustrating.
"It wasn't helped by the fact that offensively, we just gave the ball back, 36 turnovers in the front half is just horrendous by nature. We didn't give ourselves an opportunity, we had 60 inside 50s, but we just kept giving the ball back.
"Our disposal and decision making inside 50 or inside the forward half was really poor. We'd give the ball back, then they'd start their uncontested marking chain, then we'd start again. It's a reasonably simple process that we just didn't get right."
Now sitting 14th on the ladder, the Tigers have plenty of work to do to feature in September. Hardwick added that despite the loss, the season was "still alive".
"We just couldn't fundamentally do anything overly well … we just couldn't get anything on our terms," he added.
"We should be better than where we're positioned on the ladder. I have to take some responsibility for that, but as a playing group we do have to also.
"We've got to get to work — the season's still alive."
Richmond will next face Port Adelaide, GWS, Fremantle and St Kilda before their bye in Round 15.
