DAMIEN Hardwick believes he and the Richmond players "definitely" remain on the same page as they seek answers for why their work rate has been so sporadic this season.
The Tigers' coach admitted the club was "nowhere near we wanted or expected to be" heading into the second half of the season with just three wins on the board.
He was scathing on the players' intensity during Saturday night's 50-point loss to Essendon, which he said felt like a 100-point defeat.
But he says the club remains united and will work towards continuing to do so as the players and coaches look for why they've fallen away so dramatically this year.
"Funnily enough, one thing you do is find out about yourself and your playing group and also your footy club around this time," Hardwick said on Thursday.
"Brendon [Gale] and Peggy [O'Neal], the leadership has been outstanding.
"We know exactly where we're at and more importantly, we know where we've got to go.
"We've just got to remain to be solid, make sure we drive our players and our coaches to get the result we're after because we're a better club than what we've been playing.
"Unfortunately I've said that for the last four weeks so we've got to start to put actions into account.
"The challenge for us and our playing group is to hang tough, remain united and get wins on the board."
Being beaten in both the contested ball and the tackles in Saturday night was a strong indication of the players' lethargic work rate.
Hardwick said they knew they hadn't worked hard enough, and this week – again led by captain Trent Cotchin – had made an intention to find out why.
"The one thing you can do is you can tolerate losing when you've played to a reasonable standard but the disappointing thing from our point of view was our intensity and work rate was nowhere near the required standard to compete at AFL level," he said.
"The players took that on board, they'll drive it this week at training. They'll be intent.
"But from our point of view, talk is cheap.
"We've just got to make sure we deliver on the field and that's something we haven't done for the majority of the season."
Still, Hardwick admitted it remained a mystery as to why the players' intensity was so inconsistent.
He simply said the coaches "shouldn't be asking players to flick a switch from one week to the other".
"Footy is mindset, regardless," he said.
"Every time you play the game, you've got to come with a mindset that you're at the best of your ability, week in, week out.
"That's something the players control and every player within the AFL is the same.
"If you come with an attitude that's nowhere where it needs to be, you're going to get hurt on the scoreboard."
Hardwick flagged "a few" changes for Sunday night's clash with North Melbourne with injuries to play a part at selection committee on Thursday afternoon.
Nick Vlastuin appears set to return from a broken finger while Shaun Grigg was the only one from last week's team to join the rehab group on Thursday.
Grigg was on light duties with Jake King, Chris Knights, Kamdyn McIntosh and Ben Darrou.
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
