Despite Richmond's VFL team not playing its best and Coburg controlling possession of the ball for majority of the game last Saturday, the Tigers never relented, with VFL coach Jack Madgen happy with the way the group dug in.
“It is always good to give yourselves a chance, we could’ve easily been down by seven, eight or nine goals going into that last quarter, but we weren’t,” Madgen said.
“We made a choice out there to dig our feet in and have a crack and I think that was led by Nick Collier who was really good behind the footy.”
Despite some wayward kicking in front of goal from Coburg, and Richmond being forced to repel plenty of inside-50s in the first two and a half quarters, the Tigers cut the margin back to seven points late in the third term.
Some of the Tigers' younger players stood up and showed great signs to keep them in the game, before going down by 23-points at Holm Park Reserve.
“It was really pleasing to see us give ourselves a chance and as a coach that is all you can ask, but we probably weren’t able to play our way for long enough,” Madgen said.
“First-gamer Zaydyn (Lockwood) had some moments taking the footy at the highest point and Zane Peucker and Tom Burton got their hands dirty.
“I think it was with about 15 minutes to go in the third quarter where we really started to wrestle the momentum back and the game actually looked the way we wanted it to.”
The Tigers will look to bounce back this weekend against St Kilda at RSEA Park, hoping to put some of their learnings into practice from their game against Coburg.
“Early on we just gave up far too many uncontested marks and they dominated possession, the boys were saying it felt like we were defending all day which was probably because we were,” Madgen said.
“Hopefully we can just get back to playing the way we want to with some composure and we were a pretty young side, especially ahead of the footy.
“So it is just about education and giving guys like NRT (Noah Roberts-Thomson), Zane Peucker and Liam Fawcett a chance to play their best footy."
Richmond’s VFL side are back in action this Sunday at 1:05pm against St Kilda.
