Richmond coach Adem Yze has provided an honest assessment of Saturday's 68-point loss to Gold Coast, saying the playing group was "stinging" and "really flat" after the game.
Despite the Tigers leading midway through the second quarter, after a strong start against one of the premiership favourites, the Suns quickly kicked six unanswered goals which gave them a 31-point lead at halftime, an advantage they wouldn't relinquish.
Speaking post-game, Yze admitted Gold Coast's second term surge was the turning point of the contest.
"That (the first quarter and a half) was obviously the positive (to come) out of the game against a really strong team that's in really good form, to be neck and neck with them halfway through the second," Yze said.
"Our game looked really strong; clearance, contest. Territory was a bit of a red flag for us in the first quarter but we felt like we started to arrest that in that second, but then obviously when (Tom Lynch) went down (injury), it does throw your structure out a fair bit.
"We lost our way, we lost territory, we got belted, it was 21 inside-50s to nine for the (second) quarter, couldn't get out of our back end and they kicked six in a row."
Gold Coast would go on to win inside-50s 61-36, with Yze conceding Richmond struggled to contain the Suns in the forward half.
"We couldn't get out of our back end and obviously they're a really strong forward half team, they're top four in the stats that we want to be really good at and that's time in forward half, inside-50 differential, all those things, and when you're -25 (inside-50s) and then we're only 40% time in (forward) half, it would've just looked like a Gold Coast game," Yze said.
"Some of that was, I think, attributed to the fact that we lost our keys (Lynch and Toby Nankervis) and we couldn't get out of our back end. It's really hard to move the ball out of your back end when you don't have a focal point to go to.
"We understood where their strengths are, but dealing with it was just a bit of a battle today."
However, the Tigers did show fight coming out of the main break, kicking three goals to the Suns' four in the third quarter.
Yze is confident his group will be better for the contest as they prepare to face Fremantle in Perth next Saturday.
"To the boys' credit, they didn't lose spirit," he said.
"Our third quarter, I thought, was a real positive for our group, especially a young group.
"Harry Armstrong obviously gets the best defender (with Lynch out), and Mykelti (Lefau) coming back in, his game time was going to be a little bit higher in that quarter (with Nankervis out). To break even in that third quarter is a real positive and then obviously when the captain went down and we're throwing magnets around to help with our ruck, the scoreboard hurt us a little bit in the last quarter.
"All in all, really disappointing, obviously you're never going to be happy with a 10 or 12 goal loss, our boys are stinging and are really flat, which is fair enough, and that's how we expect them to feel when we lose a game.
"Our boys will be better for it. Sam Grlj will be better for the run. Dion Prestia comes in for his first game for the year, same as Nick Vlastuin, and Mykelti. We've got some guys that will be better for the run, but like I said, at the end of the day, we get belted and we're not happy."
