Plenty of AFL forwards who played on Damien Hardwick would testify that the Essendon and Port Adelaide premiership defender never lacked mongrel.

But Richmond’s players have told their coach that he needs to go harder on them.

Tigers captain Trent Cotchin has revealed they gave the feedback to Hardwick after the disastrous round-nine loss to Melbourne.

Richmond bounced back last weekend with a 113-point walloping of Greater Western Sydney and will start favourites in Saturday’s Dreamtime At The ‘G annual blockbuster against Essendon.

Hardwick was surprised at the feedback from his players.

“I must admit, I’ve never been called soft before,” he said.

“It’s a funny one – there are facets of my coaching that I can improve.

“I ask my players to improve on a weekly basis, I have to do the same.

“If I don’t, I’m doing my players an injustice.”

Asked if he thought he had been hard enough on his players, Hardwick deadpanned: “yeah, no doubt, I think I have.”

Cotchin was also told during last week’s feedback meetings to be more aggressive with his leadership.

“We saw that last week … it’s the first time I’ve really seen (it),” Hardwick said.

“He’s an aggressive player, Trent – the thing that I think our players enjoyed seeing was him probably taking out that aggression on the opposition players.

“If he can add this to his bow and his playing group are crying out for it, then we’re going to be all the better for it.”

While the GWS win was hardly season-defining, Hardwick said it had boosted their confidence.

“It’s great to have that win, but it’s more about the belief that it takes into this week,” he said.

“It’s an important game for us … we’re looking forward to playing in a big game on Saturday night in front of somewhere between 60-80,000 people.

“We can see our game is starting to get back up and going.”

Hardwick is wary of out-of-form Essendon forward Jake Carlisle.

Tigers star Jack Riewoldt was also struggling, but bounced back to form last weekend with 11 goals against the Giants.

“He’s probably a little bit like Jack at stages – he’s just a little bit down on confidence,” Hardwick said.

“It’s amazing how quickly the light switch goes on.

“We just hope it’s not this week.”