Vickery was reported for striking Eagles ruckman Dean Cox during a ruck contest in the second quarter of Friday night's 17-point win by Richmond at Patersons Stadium. The incident left Cox with concussion, and he took no further part in the match.

The 24-year-old was also suspended for two matches in June for striking North Melbourne's Michael Firrito.

"To me, he's a hard, tough player," Hardwick said of Vickery.

"That's what we want at the Tigers. At the end of the day, sometimes you step outside the boundaries, the rules are there. We know the rules. He's a hard, tough Richmond player and that's the way we like him."

Hardwick said he loved the way Vickery played football. And he didn't appear too upset that, after the incident, Vickery had become involved in a heated argument with two West Coast supporters.

"At the end of the day, if you've got a couple of lunatics hanging over the fence and yelling abuse, I don't know any other profession in the world where you can walk into (for instance) a bank teller and start calling them names like that," Hardwick said.

"It is what it is. I would prefer it if Ty didn’t react to the fans but, look, it's a volatile game. It's a hard game. Every player and every fan's got the right."

Hardwick is now left wondering what could have been in 2014 after the victory took Richmond to seven wins – just two games outside the top eight.

He said he was frustrated because the team's best was very good.

"There's some things that went against us, some sliding doors," he said.

"We lost a couple of games by under two or three goals, but unfortunately when things aren't going well you don't take your luck.

"So, from our point of view we are where we are because we didn't play well enough."

He said the Tigers had put in a more consistent effort in the past six weeks, but the return from injury of Ivan Maric, Brett Deledio and Alex Rance had also been important.

"The disappointing thing is whether it's too late," he said.