"For a start we've got 15 or 16 players out and you can include the retirements in there as well … You've got young players in there who have played the majority of the year and we have guys that have carried the load for the majority of the season," Harvey said following the seven-point defeat at the MCG.
"We played a side today that beat Hawthorn last week so it's where you see all that in the picture. We controlled most of the game today [but] I don't want to commend losing, I don't want to commend that.
"There are frustrating periods in the game where we just don't handle it well, now there are different reasons for that and if you go over what I say when we lose by these small margins you'll see a lot of the same stuff that I say and I'm not getting away from that.
"It's what each player individually learns when the game gets hot and how they handle that situation, both themselves and from a team aspect."
The loss was Fremantle's eighth of the season with a margin of nine points or less which Harvey admitted was hard to take. But he maintained the team was headed in the right direction.
"I think the whole season has given us cause for optimism, but there's a lot of things we have to tidy up in our game if we think that we're going to be anywhere near the top sides," he said.
"I just look at the way individuals and characters, as their career goes on, what they want to do about playing for Fremantle. The team's growing and that's all I really need to talk about. Sure I've got to face up to the aspect of where we find ourselves on the ladder, but we are doing a lot of things that are heading in the right direction."
Jeff Farmer gave away a 50m penalty for an off the ball incident that led to a Richmond goal at a crucial time in the match adding to the coach's frustration, but he refused to single out the errant veteran, or any other player for that matter, for criticism.
"I don't think it's the form to go public, I do it behind closed doors and people in the media should respect that. The players don't get an easy ride behind closed doors," he said.
"There were other crucial mistakes that we made that resulted in the same outcome. Sure Jeff was one of them and it was a 50m penalty, but there are other aspects to it as well; Jeff will take that loss as hard as anything on top of that particular incident."
Harvey mentioned the productivity of a forward line without Matthew Pavlich or Chris Tarrant and the efforts of Byron Schammer on Nathan Foley, and Luke McPharlin on Matthew Richardson as major positives from the match.
