Richmond coach Damien Hardwick refuses to be weighed down by any negativity associated with the Tigers’ sluggish start to the 2015 season, which sees them with just two wins after six rounds.

Hardwick is steadfast in his optimism about Richmond’s prospects for the rest of the season.

“The one thing about AFL coaching is you deal with a loss pretty early in the week and then you move on.  The great thing about our game, unlike the Olympics, is you get a chance to get a better performance the following week and from our point of view, that’s just what we worry about,” Hardwick said.

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“We worry about what we can control inside these four walls, and we work on that.  We know we’re not as far away, as what a lot of other people think.  There are a lot of areas we’re doing well.

“The consistency of performance is what’s hurting us at the moment . . . the 15 minutes of poor footy on the weekend in the third quarter (against North Melbourne) cost us seven goals.

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“They only had nine entries inside 50, but we gave up seven goals because of our ball use. 

“So we’re a lot closer than what people think . . . 

“People will look at us and say your record is two and four (2-4), but the win-loss column is the easy thing to look at. 

“The thing we’ve got to continue to do is drive improved performance and get wins on board.

“That’s what we get judged on, and that’s what we’re here to do.”