Richmond can still make finals, says a defiant Damien Hardwick despite seventh defeat of the season

INJURY-PLAGUED Richmond can still make this year’s finals if they rediscover their best form, says Damien Hardwick despite their 70-point loss to North Melbourne.

Steven Morris of the Tigers reacts after he suffers a leg injury

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers can still make this year’s finals if they rediscover their best form.

The Tigers slumped to a 4-7 win loss record after a 70-point belting from North Melbourne in Hobart on Friday night.

The loss leaves the Tigers likely needing to win eight or more of their remaining 11 home-and-away games to book a fourth successive finals campaign.

“We are still firmly of the belief that if we get everything right we can challenge for the top eight,” Hardwick told SEN.

“It is going to be incredibly tough (but) we’ve done it before.

“We’ll back ourselves in and give ourselves every chance.”

“We’re disappointed with the way we are playing at the moment — but I guarantee we will get better.”

Richmond lost defender Dylan Grimes to a hamstring injury in the warm-up to Friday night’s game and were further hit by a serious knee injury to Steve Morris while Nick Vlastuin (concussion) and Ben Griffiths (ankle) were also added to a growing casualty list.

Morris faces a fight to resurrect his career with scans on Sunday expected to confirm a rupture of his ACL.

Morris hurt his right knee nine minutes into Friday night’s disastrous loss to North Melbourne. It’s the same knee the rugged stopped had reconstructed when playing in the SANFL in 2009.

The 27-year-old is contracted until the end of 2017, but has been in and out of the side over the last 18 months.

Ben Griffiths is likely to miss a fortnight after landing awkwardly on his right ankle in the last quarter against the Kangaroos. The forward will also have scans today.

The Tigers are more confident on Nick Vlastuin (concussion) and Dylan Grimes, who pulled out two minutes before the game with hamstring tightness while warming up.

Steve Morris on crutches after the game. Picture: Getty Images

Grimes will be tested during the week but the club believes he is every chance to face Gold Coast on Sunday. The defender has a history of hamstring problems, but only reported awareness in Hobart.

Hardwick stressed the injuries were no excuse for the loss to North Melbourne, but yesterday admitted the interrupted seasons of Grimes and others had hurt the Tigers’ season.

“(Alex) Rance is our best defender, there’s no doubt ‘Grimsey’ is our second best,” Hardwick told SEN on Saturday.

“He’s incredibly underrated by those in AFL circles. I think he’s played four games for us so we haven’t had the consistency of his performance, which is probably the reason our backline hasn’t quite functioned the way we’d like it to.”

Defeat to the Kangaroos marked Richmond’s seventh of the season

Hardwick said there would be hard questions asked at Punt Rd this week before next Sunday’s home game against injury depleted Gold Coast.

Asked about his involvement in reviews at board level, Hardwick said: “We have robust discussions … on a weekly basis.

“We will question the way we play; question the way we coach; question the way the players came out and performed.

“It is a performance based industry and at the moment we are well short.

“We’re capable of performing and beating sides when we are at our best and we were well off that last night.”

Asked if it was time to develop young players even at possible expense of a finals tilt, Hardwick said: “I’m still of the belief that the best form of culture is winning culture”.

“We will be striving to win as many games as we can but in saying that we will still be looking to regenerate along the way.”

“It is a philosophy we have always had in my time at the Tigers.

“I’ve got belief in our group — some of the guys are not playing as well as what we’d like. But I’ve also got faith in some of the younger talent coming through.

“We’ll pick as good a side as we can. We picked up a couple of injuries so some younger guys will get an opportunity.”