In a season gone wrong, Richmond captain Trent Cotchin says the Tigers have been guilty of "picking and choosing" in terms of their commitment to winning the contest.
While Cotchin did not go as far as accusing his team of complacency, he said the Tigers needed to treat every game as if it was a major clash, an area it has improved on as the season has unfolded.
Unfortunately for Richmond fans, it has come too late. The Tigers have just six wins and are three games outside of the top eight, heading into Friday night's clash against the West Coast Eagles at Patersons Stadium.
"The level of competition among the whole 18 teams - anyone is capable of beating anyone if they are off their game by five or 10 per cent," Cotchin said on Wednesday.
"The reality is, you have to be playing your best footy for four quarters of the game, 100 per cent of the game, in it mentally, physically and set yourself for every game as a big match, rather than just picking and choosing when you want to go.
"I just think at stages during the year, momentum swings have gone opposition ways and we haven't found a way to stop them.
"We have done a lot of work on that both on the training track and in games and feel that we have better answers than what we had earlier in the season. With that comes the effort and intensity in and around the contest, which we feel we have really improved on in the last four or five weeks. But we want to carry that forward."
The Tigers built momentum in the fortnight before the bye, defeating Brisbane and one-time premiership fancy Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. The Tigers dominated the contested possessions against the Power - with Cotchin boasting a team-high 19 - and also took control of the clearances.
"We played pretty consistent footy v Port a couple of weeks back now. Our challenge is to carry that on for the rest of the season," Cotchin said.
That challenge continues against the Eagles, who will want to do well in a week premiership ruckman Dean Cox announced his retirement.
"We came up against what was said to be the best running team in Port Adelaide and finished off really well. We will be carrying that confidence into this game," Cotchin said.
"We know they [West Coast] have some elite runners on the inside and outside. We just have to make sure we match it and, hopefully, we are cleaner and better with our ball going forward and put more of a score on the board."
Cotchin appeared at a Celebrating Diversity presentation at Parliament House on Wednesday alongside Hawthorn's Shaun Burgoyne. While the veteran Hawk fielded questions about this weekend's blockbuster against the Swans, finals were also discussed, and for Cotchin it was a reminder of a season where the Tigers failed to meet president Peggy O'Neal's aim of back-to-back finals campaigns.
"To get a taste of it last year and not perform to the standard that we would have liked to in the second half v Carlton [in an elimination final], and then not follow up on our form earlier this year, it's disappointing," Cotchin said.
"It's been frustrating but the reality is that's where we are at with this group. It's been a massive learning year for us as a team and, hopefully, going forward we will take a lot of learnings from this year into next season.
"If we can finish off the year on a real positive note, it will give confidence to the guys to have a real positive pre-season and carry some really good form into the early parts of next year."
