FED UP with their recent form, Richmond's players took charge of the review of their 66-point loss to Hawthorn last Sunday and demanded improvement from the group.
Coach Damien Hardwick admitted the Tigers' coaches had scaled back elements of opposition analysis this week, and had instead used their time to analyse how the side could move the ball better using vision from the past two years.
Hardwick's side will be bolstered by the return of Brett Deledio and Alex Rance to face Geelong on Sunday if they get through training, with the former "as good as he's going to get" in regards to his persistent Achilles complaint.
Both trained with the group on Thursday, along with Ivan Maric who is on track to return – likely through the VFL – after the Tigers' round eight bye.
Hardwick said the players heavily led the dissection of the loss to the Hawks, which featured four goals lost from kick-ins and five from centre bounces.
"They always have input in the review, but this week is probably the loudest they've been, which is great for us to see," Hardwick said on Thursday.
"They're not happy with the way they're playing.
"They're the first to admit that we as a footy club aren't performing anywhere near where we need to be.
"There's nothing better as a coach when the players actually stand up and demand in the meeting what's required of them, and the good thing about it is it's a stepping stone for our group.
"They are a relatively inexperienced leadership group but they're starting to take charge, which is great."
However, Hardwick said the players knew they had to back up their words – including ones spoken during the game – with actions.
"If they feel they've got something to say and want to speak to the group about it, it's fine," he said.
"It's good to all talk about it, but we've just got to start to see the actions of those.
"We're probably tired of saying we're not playing as well as we would have liked; we want to actually start to see some dividends of what we're putting in."
The Tigers, who will drop to 2-5 if they lose this week, have not played with the flair and confidence they possessed last year.
Hardwick said the players were being encouraged to find that belief and get back to the way they played in 2013.
"We've also played some good sides in good form," he said.
"We expected to play better against those sides, there's no doubt about that, but confidence is a funny thing; sometimes you've got to fool yourself to being more confident than what you are.
"You can't relate it to winning all the time, you just have to continue with every contest to get better and better, and that's what we keep imploring our boys to do – just to get better and take the game on."
The Tigers are happy with what forward Tyrone Vickery has shown in the VFL, and he will be in the mix this week, along with youngster Ben Lennon.
Hardwick admitted the management of Deledio's Achilles, which flared up in round two against Carlton, would have to be continued but expected him to play on Sunday.
"He was very close to playing last week, so another week adds to the recovery stage of his Achilles," he said.
"It is one of those injuries that will flare, but we think we're on top of it from that point of view.
"As far as we're concerned, not many players are 100 per cent now, but he's as good as he's going to get."
