RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick may be closing out the most successful season of his time at the Tigers, but 2012 has still been a failure in his eyes.

Friday night's win over Essendon was Richmond's 10th victory of the season  and they will be hot favourites to secure an 11th win in next week's season finale against Port Adelaide.

Hardwick, who had not coached more than eight wins in either of his first two seasons at the Tigers said the club could not have a sense of achievement until it made the finals.

"Every season's a fail when you don't make finals, that's the reality of it and that is what we and the media certainly gauge by the importance of the season," Hardwick said.

"We certainly felt we had the capabilities of playing at the level, we just dropped some games we should have won. We've got no one else to blame but ourselves."

The Tigers defeated by Essendon by 45 points on Friday in a game that is unlikely to be remembered for its aesthetic appeal.

The Tigers kicked 13 goals from 37 scoring shots, which Hardwick said was an issue that needed addressing.

"Our ability to finish our work probably wasn't one of the prettiest things. It probably wasn't our best work on the night, we kicked 20-odd points and the wind was relatively swirly out there as we know," he said.

"The thing that was a little bit disappointing was our composure to get the ball inside 50 to a marking target. We've just got to improve in that area."

But Hardwick did say his team's solid finish to 2012 was encouraging and would serve as a launching pad for the 2013 campaign.

"We spoke after the Carlton game (round 18) about wanting to go 5-0, I think we have been 3-1 since that game. We dropped the Fremantle game but they're a good side and we didn't play overly well," he said.

"We're looking to finish off the season well. We're 10-11 now and if we finish off 11-11 it's certainly a stepping stone in the right direction."

Luke Holmesby is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter - @AFL_Luke