AFTER a promising first three quarters against Geelong on Saturday night everything turned sour for Richmond in the final term.
Trailing by just three points at the last change the young Tigers were overrun, finally going down by five goals.
CATS v TIGERS Full match coverage and stats
To make matters worse, what looked like being a rare injury-free night went downhill in the worst possible way with promising key forward Mykelti Lefau leaving the ground with a suspected ACL injury after landing awkwardly from a marking contest.
"It doesn't look good," Tigers coach Adem Yze said after the game when asked about the extent of the injury.
"At this stage it does look like he might have hurt his knee, but obviously we'll get the scans on Monday.
"It'll be shattering if it is (an ACL injury) because he's in good form and he's a real talent.
"If it is we'll wrap our arms around him like we have with the other boys that have injured themselves."
Yze also confirmed Marlion Pickett had left the game in the last quarter with a calf injury and will miss "a couple of weeks".
Despite the new additions to an already full medical room and an eighth successive loss, Yze wasn't disheartened by the result.
"We are proud of our effort," he said.
"It's hard to come down here and and beat them down here, but I thought we put up a really solid performance for two-and-a-half quarters."
Geelong coach Chris Scott said he was happy with how his side fought out the game after a slow start.
"I feel a little bit better about the outcome of the game because it was really fierce early and we had to fight our way through it," Scott said.
"Just another reminder that if you go into a game - I don't think we did this - but I think the fans have been sort of thinking 'well, the ladder is going to dictate how this game will be played'.
"They're going to be continually surprised because the competition is pretty even."
The Cats also took an injury from the match with Ollie Henry subbed out with a hamstring injury.
