Winning without talented midfielder Brett Deledio will be a sign Richmond is progressing as a football club, according to coach Damien Hardwick.

Deledio has missed seven games in the past two seasons and Richmond has won just two, both against the Brisbane Lions.

He will be missing again this week against Geelong as the Tigers look for a response from last week's loss to Melbourne.

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"That is the progression of a good footy club. We have just got to make sure the reality is when a player goes out we replace him with another one and we should be able to still win games," Hardwick said.  

The coach conceded that playing Deledio in Round 1 against Carlton had not worked out well but said the call at the time had appeared to be the right one.

"I reckon 95 per cent of the time we make the right call. In hindsight, we probably say ‘yeah it was the wrong one,’" Hardwick said

The Tigers will welcome back key defender Troy Chaplin this weekend, after he missed last week’s match with a calf injury.

Hardwick said Chaplin's absence had exposed deficiencies in the Tigers’ defence.

"We felt we missed him enormously. He is a general down there, he marshals the troops and probably the disappointing thing for us is we lacked a bit of stability down there when he went out."

Richmond is under pressure to put in a strong performance, but Hardwick was confident the response would come.

“[The] proof will be in the pudding. It is not what we say, it is what we do," Hardwick said.

"They're a proud group."