RICHMOND defender Will Thursfield did a strong job keeping West Coast's Mark LeCras relatively quiet in Sunday's loss at Patersons Stadium, and he is happy with the way the Tigers' back line is starting to come together.

Thursfield has spent much of his 73-game AFL career playing on some of the competition's biggest and best forwards, but enjoyed the challenge on the nimble and dangerous LeCras on Sunday.

With Mark Nicoski kicking six, and Jack Darling and Brad Ebert four each, the Eagles managed to boot 22 goals but LeCras was restricted to just one.

"He is a dangerous little fella and is capable of kicking bags, but it was good to keep him reasonably quiet. A few others sort of got out of hand a bit though," Thursfield said.

"I enjoy it actually. It gives you a bit more of a chance in the air to beat these fellas. It's a nice surprise when I don’t have to play on the real big boys. Alex [Rance] is playing pretty well down at full-back and it's been good."

Every developing team always makes it a focus to build around a solid defensive unit. Now with Thursfield, Rance and Luke McGuane, plus Brett Deledio setting up play and the usual presence of captain Chris Newman, Thursfield likes the way Richmond's back line is coming along.

He has no doubt that former Brisbane Lions premiership defender and Tiger assistant coach Justin Leppitsch deserves much of the credit.

"The plan is to try and get it nice and solid with us playing a lot of games together. Leppa, the defensive coach, has been really good at getting us to play as a team and not just in individual battles," he said.

"He is a real master at body work and that is something we haven’t had coached to us in the past. All those little finer points have been what he's been good at teaching. He's also the tackling coach and is putting some good work in there as well."

While it was a 57-point loss against the Eagles, the Tigers showed good fight in the first quarter and late in the third term, when they closed the gap to 27 points.

However, Thursfield knows the next step in the team's development is to play four strong quarters.

"We took a fair bit out of it, but we just couldn’t sustain it for the whole game. Definitely we were pretty good in patches and it was a reasonable effort over here against almost a top-four side on their home deck," he said.

"We just can't sustain it for the whole and that's what we have to work on. We want to be up and going to finish off the season, and then hit the pre-season with a bit of confidence."

Now looking ahead to this Sunday's clash with Sydney Swans at the MCG, Thursfield said he would put his hand up for the big job on dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes if he's asked to, but more than that he's looking forward to getting back to play in front of the yellow and black faithful.

"If they want me to have a crack at him, then I would put my hand up. He has been in great form, though, and whoever gets him will have a tough day next week," Thursfield said.

"Their [West Coast's] mob out there were really loud and vocal, and we hope to get that sort of feeling going our way at the 'G. You could really tell out there that it was a one-sided crowd, but those types of fans are great. I have no doubt our fans will get out in force next week."