BEING exposed defensively by Carlton in round 21 was the timely "kick up the backside" that Richmond needed, says coach Damien Hardwick.
The teams play each other again this Sunday in an elimination final, just three weeks after the Tigers coughed up a comfortable early lead to lose just their seventh game for the season.
They led by five goals at quarter-time only to lose by 10 points after conceding 13 goals to six after the first break.
Hardwick said the players – and coaches - had learned from the hard lessons, and a tough post-mortem of the game, in the weeks following.
"Even though we kicked eight goals in that first quarter, we were defensively not to the standard we needed to be," Hardwick said on Tuesday.
"I think it smoothed over a few cracks and I think our record since then has been pretty good.
"Defensively as a side, it's an area we've improved enormously, not only over the course of 12 months but in three to four years.
"We certainly look forward to taking that into the elimination final this week."
Hardwick said there was no telling if the Blues would employ similar tactics this week but still believed it was handy they had played Mick Malthouse’s team so recently.
"We had some things that didn't go our way that day. Trent [Cotchin] didn't have a great game, Dusty [Martin] didn't have a great game, so we had a lot of players who were down," he said.
"We certainly got a look at what they did and how they put work into those players.
"Whether they come out the same, who knows, but at least we had a look at it some three weeks ago."
Hardwick said he felt captain Trent Cotchin and his leadership team had addressed the lack of finals experience within the group by ensuring a strong preparation.
"It's all about your preparation and your training week that leads into the game," he said.
"It's going to be a great contest; contested ball, a tackle fest, and that's what we're looking forward to.
"We've played Carlton in those sorts of games before and our last three have been decided by under two kicks, so it's probably going to be a similar type of game on the weekend.
"We've just got to make sure we play our best footy, put our head over the ball and tackle as hard as we can and get the ball going our way."
Hardwick said Chris Newman and Jack Riewoldt were "locks" to play but Matt White – who hurt his hamstring on Saturday night against Essendon, was a 50-50 prospect.
Riewoldt, who has had back soreness over the last few weeks as well as being troubled by bone bruising in his knee, which he has had before, will train on Tuesday.
Hardwick said he could have played against the Bombers and was cleared medically but they took the opportunity to rest him ahead of the drought-breaking final.
He also said retiring veteran Shane Tuck was in with a chance of holding his spot and was doing all he could to finish his career in a final.
For Carlton, Chris Judd's availability remains up in the air but Hardwick said he hoped the two-time Brownlow medallist would play so they'd face the Blues at their best.
