RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has pledged to keep fielding his strongest possible team during the remainder of the season, as the club deals with a dramatic fall in its attendances as it has slid down the ladder.
Six days after a crowd of just 22,074 saw the Tigers go down to Fremantle at the MCG, only 34,633 turned up at the same venue to see their scrappy 11-point loss to the Sydney Swans on Friday night.
The latter figure was particularly disappointing for two key reasons: the match was played in the key Friday night slot, and Richmond would likely have budgeted for a significantly larger crowd prior to the start of the season.
After playing finals last year, Richmond is mired in 15th place on the ladder with just three wins, and is 1-7 in its past eight games, its sole victory in that period a 113-point win over Greater Western Sydney.
"At the end of the day, if you put in a 3-10 season you're not going to get crowds," Hardwick said after the loss to the Swans, which came after the Tigers were 26 points up midway though the second quarter.
"We've got to make sure we start winning some games to get people back.
"We like to think we play an exciting brand of footy. Tonight was probably a war of attrition more so than anything else, but we've got to make sure we do ourselves a favour and win some games."
Although Richmond is out of finals calculations, Hardwick won't be blooding youngsters for the sake of it, nor will he be sending players off for season-ending surgery just so they can be fit for summer training.
"We'll still be out to win games," he said. "We're a better side than 3-10. The record would say otherwise, but we're playing some footy at the moment that's going to knock some sides off.
"So we'll just get the best sides to play. We won't be packing up anyone.
"We'll just continue to try and win footy games, because we owe it to our supporters, we owe it to our members, to make sure we keep going.
"Because we're well short of where we need to be, and we want to make sure we earn the respect back of that group."
One of the positives to come out of the defeat at the hands of the Swans was the performance of midfielder Dustin Martin, who gathered a game-high and career-high 36 disposals.
"I think he's probably been close to our best player for the majority of the year," Hardwick said.
"He's still got some areas of his game we'd like to improve, but he's only going to get better."
Another player worthy of a pat on the back from the coach was key defender Alex Rance, who had a tremendous duel with Lance Franklin.
The Swans star finished with four goals in what proved to be a match-winning performance, yet Hardwick could not fault the effort of his man.
"I thought Rance won that battle," he said. "It was an outstanding contest. A really good one-on-one contest. I though Alex battled manfully."
Hardwick was also delighted with the contribution made by inexperienced onballer Anthony Miles, who finished with 28 disposals and two goals in his third game for the Tigers.
"He's been very good," Hardwick said. "He wins the ball, he uses it well. He just puts his head where it needs to be.
"That sort of game suits him to a tee, and to finish off with two goals is a special effort.
"He's really impressed me, and I think he's impressed the AFL world in general."
One of Richmond's key problems in recent weeks has been its forward line.
Against the Swans, Hardwick's side had six goals on the board by the 17-minute mark of the second quarter, but the Tigers kicked just one more major for the remainder of the game.
"We're probably lacking that key forward at the moment that can take a big mark," Hardwick said. "Funnily enough, there's not many of those around at the moment.
"Jack (Riewoldt) was really dominant early. Probably faded out of the game. Aaron Edwards was a little bit the same and Shaun Hampson was probably a little bit the same.
"Our delivery inside 50 wasn't probably ideal from that point of view.
"Ty Vickery's back from suspension next week. Ben Griffiths we've lost for three with a hip flexor, so we've got some guys we think are capable of improving. They're just going to take some time."
Hampson looked to have rolled his right ankle during the third quarter, but Hardwick was adamant that the injury was not serious.
"He just got it retaped. He was fine. I think we got through injury-free for a change, which was good."
