Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was barely over the disappointment of the 2013 elimination final loss to Carlton, when he set his sights on achieving back-to-back September appearances for the Club – something it has not managed to do for four decades.

It was a season which was widely recognised as a success . . . 15 wins in the home-and-away rounds being the most the Tigers had achieved since 2001, and a percentage of 122.8%, their highest since 1982.

The way the season ended, however, left a sour taste in the mouths of every Richmond player, coach, and supporter, and a hunger to further improve in season 2014.

“We’re still hurting, like most Richmond supporters.  I locked myself in the man-cave for a few days and felt a bit sorry for myself, and for the team,” Hardwick said.

Sign up as a Richmond member for the 2014 season, online at the Tigers’ membership web hub

“We just weren’t good enough on the day.  It was a really disappointing finish to an otherwise pretty successful year.

“We took some steps forwards, but the good thing about it is we’ve identified a number of areas that we can improve again, and that will help us to make the next step.”

Hardwick and his coaching staff steered Richmond to fifth place on the AFL ladder in the 2013 home-and-away season, just half a game outside the top four, with the Tigers continuing their upward curve in the win-loss column, after six wins in 2010, eight in 2011 and 10 in 2012.

Following that long-awaited finals appearance, there will be greater expectations placed on the Tiger team for next season.

“The great thing about our group is that we’ve constantly improved.  We’ve improved as coaches, we’ve improved as players also, and the challenge for us is to raise the bar again,” Hardwick said.

“We haven’t made successive finals since ’74-’75.  We’re certainly not setting a ceiling on where we finish, but we’re certainly setting a floor, and that’s finals. That’s our expectation now.

“Under Gary March and his administration, they’ve got us back to where we need to be, but that challenge is staying there, that’s our job as a coaching fraternity and playing group.

“There’s no guarantee that you’ll get back there next year.  There are sides that go in and out.  Our challenge is to break it down into two seasons – we’ve got the regular season, and then we get the opportunity to present again.

“It’s important we come back focused. Our players are driven, I have no doubt about that, and they’ll look forward to coming back in pre-season and setting the bar high once again.”

The cornerstone of Richmond’s recent improvement has been its defence, with the team ranked third in the AFL for points against in 2013, behind Sydney and Fremantle.

But even that is a work in progress.

“Our numbers, defensively, were better, from a points against point of view, but from a turnover point of view, we didn’t think they were to the level we needed them to be,” Hardwick said.

“We’ll focus a lot more on our defensive formation (in 2014).  We probably dropped off a little bit on that.

“We can still get our work inside 50 a bit better also.  The relationship between our midfielders and our forwards needs to get better, and needs to become more fluid.

“And, a number of our goals always seem hard to get, whereas you look at sides like Geelong and Hawthorn, who seem to get easy goals from the goal square.”