RICHMOND midfielder Trent Cotchin says his side can still take a positive from its finish to Saturday night's NAB Cup thrashing from Hawthorn.

The Tigers trailed by more than 100 points at the last change but a late rally - in which they booted five late goals - saw them reduce the final margin to 73 points.

Speaking from Punt Road on Tuesday morning, Cotchin admitted the hurt of the loss but said fans had to be patient with the young list as it came to grips with new coach Damien Hardwick's style.

"It's pretty disappointing," Cotchin said. "We finished off on a really good note, so that helped us with our post-game interview, I guess.

"When you speak about such a young group that's coming into a new game plan and a whole new system this year, it's just good to have signs that our game plan is working.

"Whether you say Hawthorn took its foot off the pedal in the last quarter or we just started playing better footy, who's to know?

"We're just looking forward to the next game and seeing if we can continue that last quarter performance into that next game."

Cotchin, part of one of the youngest midfield groups in the AFL, said the Tigers weren't making any bold predictions about the season proper.

They're more intent on perfecting Hardwick's style than anything else.

"Our goal is to play our game plan to the best of our ability," he said.

"Hopefully one day in the future, not too far away, we do play a similar game to a Hawthorn and are that well-structured and drilled that we can just smash sides just with our game plan.

"We haven't really discussed wins at this point of the year. Where that takes us - whether it's 10 wins, whether it's 15, who knows?

"We're just hoping that we can have a bit of a game plan that delivers a good performance on match day and we can hopefully get a bit of success out of that."

Cotchin is entering just his third season at the top level but feels he is better prepared to make an impact after shaking off a persistent achilles tendon injury.

"The body feels really good … I suppose my program coming into the season's been much better," he said.

"I haven't had any problems with my achilles thus far this year and can't feel any coming on, so hopefully it all goes well."

Confident he can get through his first full season, the 19-year-old is looking forward to working with some other young cubs, including first-round draftee Dustin Martin.

Martin impressed with 26 touches on Saturday night to be his side's best player.

"He's a tremendous player," Cotchin said.

"We've got a number of young players that are coming into the system this year who have shown great attributes … they're showing good signs at this point of the year."

Trent Cotchin is a $296,200 midfielder in this year's Toyota AFL Dream Team.

Dustin Martin is a $149,500 midfielder.