Carlton and Richmond have achieved a tie, but Voss and Hardwick find positives in the game

“We addressed that with the playgroup at the end and that’s something to like – that’s a big like – because we’ve been working on a lot of those aspects of our game.”

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Voss applauded ex-Bulldog Lewis Young’s performance, which included 14 intercept possessions, but also his revised defense as a whole. Knowing the pressure they were under all night, he refused to criticize their inability to fend off Lynch in the last minute of the game.

At the same time, the Blues’ efforts to fix the ball on their own offensive end will be analyzed in depth ahead of next week’s big clash with reigning Premier Geelong.

“There were moments when we had to hold for a long time,” said Voss.

“I think the number was 15 intercepts in the forward half [for us]and they had 37 so that’s a lot of ball in your back half and you can’t get out so we have to work on that.

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“But if you just look the other side; it means we held on and we held on and I don’t think that’s been said a lot about us lately so I think we can take that and build on that.”

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick, on the other hand, blamed a lack of shine as his team had to settle for a tie in a game he felt was being played on Tigers’ terms.

“I kind of thought it looked like a Richmond game,” Hardwick said.

“I thought we pinned them in the front half for the vast majority. We lacked polish…we had seven misses and four full and [missed] some sodas.”

However, Hardwick was positive about the fact that the Tigers had played the game in their attacking zone.

“We had 37 turnovers in the front half so our system was strong. Our pressure number was 1.88, which is elite. We were really happy with that part of our game. It was the basics of polish in 50 that probably let us down.”

Hardwick was also optimistic about the Richmond debuts of Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto, the ex-Giants who moved to Punt Road in the trading period.

“I thought they were both really good for us. Tim is different, obviously more of a transitional type, so I think he had a big impact tonight,” he said.

“‘Hopps’ is probably a bit like Cripps. It was a game with many disruptions, but the disruptions were at the book ends, not necessarily through the arcs.

“I thought he found the ball well – probably his execution [was lacking]; He was one of those guys that we expect to get better along the way. As we know, he’s getting better and better.

“Generally we deal with clearances against Carlton. It was pretty much 50-50 from our perspective. We were really happy with that aspect of our game.”

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