Richmond midfielder Dion Prestia has admitted his side was distracted during their 15-point finals loss to Brisbane on Friday night.
The Tigers gave away four 50-metre penalties throughout the contest and weren’t able to make the most of dominating general play early in the second quarter before Brisbane kicked four goals to one in the term.
Prestia confirmed the club didn’t address giving away multiple 50-metre penalties specifically in their post-match review, rather choosing to focus on their mental lapses in the game more generally.
“We definitely didn’t watch (the 50-metre penalties we gave away) in the review,” he said on Sportsday.
“I know our mental side of the game has been documented pretty well in the last three or four years and it’s probably the work we do in that area (that we talked about), obviously we were distracted by the Brisbane Lions players instead of running back to positions defensively.
“It probably steps up another gear in finals as there’s a lot more on the line and we were distracted in the wrong areas, we’re usually good at moving on pretty quickly from an error and getting each other through games.
“There’s nothing really physically different we need to do, it’s just our focus areas.”
Prestia said he would relish a potential rematch against Brisbane, which could come in the Grand Final on October 24.
“Brisbane are an awesome team and they’re going to go pretty close this year,” he said.
“Their finals experience from last year would have taught them a few lessons as well. I wouldn’t mind getting (Brisbane) in a Grand Final just to see how we go against them.
“But we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Richmond will be bidding to keep their season alive when they take on St Kilda at Metricon Stadium in Friday night’s Semi Final.