RICHMOND coach Adem Yze is hopeful Saturday night's 119-point drubbing from Brisbane is rock bottom for his Tigers team that added yet another two injuries to its nightmare list.
When it seemed things couldn't get any worse following last week's 91-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, they did.
Not only did the Lions run roughshod for all four quarters, Mykelti Lefau (jaw) and Rhyan Mansell (concussion) became players number 16 and 17 respectively on the Tigers' injury list.
LIONS v TIGERS Full match coverage and stats
Lefau will be scanned in the coming days after landing heavily following a marking contest, while Mansell will miss next week's Dreamtime at the 'G game against Essendon after being inadvertently cleaned up by his skipper Toby Nankervis.
Yze said the loss was a combination of poor execution and decision-making.
"We're going through a bit at the moment," he said.
"We're not happy where we sit.
"Our last two weeks are probably the lowest we're hopefully going to get, but as a footy club, we'll stick thick, train hard and ... hopefully bounce back quickly."
The result leaves the Tigers languishing in 17th place on the ladder with just one win – remarkably against competition pacesetters Sydney – from 10 games.
Yze said the club would review the Lions' loss hard, but he still didn't see the Tigers as rebuilding and thought they could be competitive when everyone was healthy.
"We're just struggling with personnel right now, with some talent out of the team , but that will hold us in good stead," he said.
"Some of our younger players are getting opportunities, so when we do get some troops back, that'll be the silver lining.
"It wasn't too long ago this footy club lost by 120 points in 2016 in the last game, then bounced back to win a flag in 2017.
"There are some hard times we're going to have to deal with, and right now we're going through them, but we're going to work hard and try to bounce back as quick as we can and get back to where we know we should be."
Brisbane counterpart Chris Fagan said he had some sympathy for Richmond's plight, comparing to his first season in charge of the Lions in 2017.
Unlike then though, the Lions are now moving back towards their form of last year, with Charlie Cameron (five goals) and Cam Rayner (three goals) among those players to rediscover their best touch.
Fagan said after his team's 0-3 start to the season, he felt like they were on the way up with four wins and a draw from their past seven.
"I thought we were really selfless tonight around the goals," Fagan said.
"We gave the ball to guys in good positions, our accuracy was really good … we were relentless across the four quarters.
"We understand we're playing a Richmond side, they're going back to Ground Zero and building up again after a tremendously successful era.
"There'll be better days ahead for the Tigers, it's just tonight we turned up and were pretty switched on.
"It was Josh Dunkley's 150th and we wanted to play the way Josh Dunkley plays, which is team first, ruthless attack on the footy style of play."
