SKIPPER Kane Johnson says that Richmond is looking forward to an away fixture this weekend following the club’s devastating 157-point round six defeat to Geelong.

“It’s just good that we can get away as a group and bond,” Johnson said.

“I think sometimes when you get away and travel and you stay in the same hotel and you’re around each other, it can really unite the group and I think it’s really good for us this week.”

The midfielder insisted that the morale of the playing group was not rock bottom.

“It’s pretty good considering. Obviously it’s pretty hard after a loss like that. Before the weekend to be zero and five and to have a really strong resolve around the group was fantastic and we haven’t deviated,” Johnson told richmondfc.com.au.

“Obviously it was hard to take over 24 hours, but now we move on.

“We’re really keen for this week to come around. We’re sorry for the performance the other night. It was inexcusable. We’re embarrassed about it and we just want to make sure that we do everything we can to turn things around in the next few weeks and show everyone that we are serious about where we’re going.”

Johnson rejected the notion that the playing group was soft.

“I don’t think we’re soft. I thing the first five weeks we showed we weren’t soft. It was something that happened the other night that we don’t accept and as I said if we keep putting up those performances you can call us a soft group, but I don’t think we’re soft,” he said.

“The leadership group’s got together, the whole group’s got together. We take full responsibility for the weekend. You can’t blame it all on Terry. He’s been a very good coach since I’ve been at the club and it’s our responsibility to do something about it at the weekend.”

Johnson said that the sudden retirement of key defender Darren Gaspar last week had not affected the playing group.

“Terry spoke to us about the decision. ‘Gas’ made the decision in the end. The club said that they were going to put younger players in front of him. That’s their decision going forward and we all respected that.

“Darren was a much-liked person around the place and a leader but we respect the club’s decision going forward and I just would have thought that it would have given the young lads some confidence that the club has in them and they’d play well on the weekend.

“It didn’t happen that way but I’m sure they’ll pick it up over the next few weeks.”

The captain said that although the form of players across the board has been ‘average’ he couldn’t explain why the team had played in the manner it did against Geelong.

“It’s hard to come up with a significant answer. Anyone that’s been in a game like that knows that it’s very hard to turn the tide when a side gets a full on run on like that,” Johnson said.

“I heard Wayne Carey and Garry Lyon talking about it last night and they said when you’re in that situation to actually turn around mid-game is very hard, it’s more what you do the next week and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.