RICHMOND needs to be tougher around the contest, small forward Sam Lloyd said after the Tigers recorded their lowest tackle count for the season.
In a bruise-free affair for the Tigers, Damien Hardwick's men applied a mere 30 tackles to Gold Coast's 61 in their 83-point win over the Suns at the MCG.
Heading into the game, Richmond had averaged 58.9 tackles per game in 2015, with their lowest tally of 40 recorded against the Swans in round 13.
At quarter-time against Gold Coast, Richmond had recorded just one tackle, through midfielder Dustin Martin, and at half-time the tally was skewed 40-9 in favour of the Suns.
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After last week's shock loss to Adelaide, Lloyd said the Tigers had focused on improving their tackling, but were unable to redeem themselves.
"I was standing at the back and copped a bit of spray [from the coach] I think," Lloyd admitted after the game.
"He wasn't happy, and probably in the second quarter we didn't lift it that much either.
"We had another chat at half-time and he raised the voice a bit and we got it back in the second half, which was nice.
"I think we let them switch too much too early. I just think we need to be tougher in and around the contest. I think we were getting our hands on a few and doing what Choco (Mark Williams) calls 'kids' tackles' – the ones that don't count as stats."
Hardwick said his team's lack of defensive pressure was disappointing.
"It's not as if we were smashing them in contested ball," the coach said after the game.
"We probably allowed them to get through at various stages.
"They took the ball wide and cut back through the middle which we were disappointed with. We didn't probably scout that as well as I would have liked, so that was disappointing.
"It wasn't one of our better tackling days, but in saying that the contested ball numbers starting going our way a lot more, so that was probably understandable.
"We were hitting the scoreboard earlier, but defensively we weren't anywhere near where we want to be today, so that's something that we'll look at working on this week."
The win over the Suns gave the Tigers their 12th win for the season with the team well and truly entrenched in the top eight.
Despite finals footy being a physical and bruising affair, Hardwick wasn't concerned his team's poor defensive pressure against the Suns would continue in the lead up to September action.
Richmond faces Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.
