On a day when Richmond won the inside-50 count 58-47, Riewoldt was well beaten by Demons defender James Frawley and as a result his team struggled to kick a decent score.
“He’s probably not doing the small things well,” Hardwick admitted at his press conference after the game.
“A couple of ground-balls he could have picked up, but he’s probably trying to get out of the contest before he’s got the contest under control.
“He’s probably tired. He’s taken the majority of our inside-50 targets, so he just needs to do the small things better on a consistent basis.”
Hardwick stationed usual defender Luke McGuane next to Riewoldt in attack during the first half of the clash with the Demons, before another backman Will Thursfield was sent forward after the long break.
Shane Tuck also spent much of the afternoon floating across half-forward, although he had little impact on the contest.
“It was just something we thought we had to try,” Hardwick explained.
“Tucky was a bit off today and we were always going to try Luke McGuane and Will Thursfield at some stage swapping from full-back to full-forward just to see what we had.
“Will Thursfield took a couple of marks inside 50. Luke probably struggled a bit today, but we’ll continue to try things during the remaining three games and see what we can get out of it.
“We’ve got David Gourdis playing well at Coburg, who’ll probably come in at some stage to play full-back, which will release one of those blokes.
However, Hardwick acknowledged the Tigers needed to find players who can line up next to Riewoldt in the forward line on a regular basis.
“We’ve always sort of said our forward line will take some time,” the Richmond coach said.
“We’ve got some players we’re developing. Ben Griffiths goes out injured, Troy Taylor is a guy we can see playing that role, and we’re developing Jayden Post as well.
“We just need to use the ball a bit better going inside 50.
“I thought we were just poor today. I thought our endeavour was there but we just didn’t play well.”
