Richmond coach Terry Wallace says the Tigers cannot afford to let a 10-goal loss to top-placed Geelong dishearten them in their ongoing bid for the AFL finals.

Richmond remain just two premiership points out of the eight despite the defeat and face a crunch game against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium next Sunday.

With the Cats seemingly a class above most of the competition, Wallace said the crucial factor would be how the Tigers bounced back from their 20.14 (134) to 10.11 (71) loss at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

"We just need to reload and get on with the rest," Wallace said.

"There have been plenty of sides beaten by Geelong, it's what you do over the three or four weeks after you play Geelong, whether it puts you back into your shell or whether you're just prepared to get on and play footy.

"We were five (wins) out of six (games) leading into this game, it's five out of seven now, it's pretty reasonable form at this time of the year, so we've just got to reload."

Wallace said he could not fault his team's competitiveness, but a gulf in class and experience meant the Tigers' skills did not stand up to the pressure applied by the Cats.

The good news was that Richmond escaped without any serious injury concerns, despite Matthew Richardson spending some time on the bench after hurting his knee in the second quarter and youngster Shane Edwards having his head crashed into the turf in a tackle.

Both players are expected to play against the Crows and star forward Nathan Brown should also return after missing Saturday night's match with a virus.

Wallace said the positive for the club and its supporters was that the Tigers remained in the finals hunt heading into the last rounds of the season.

"We want to be able to jump out of bed on a Monday morning and know that there's something hanging on the following Saturday's game or Sunday's game or whenever it is the next weekend," he said.

"That's what good footy's about, so we're very pleased to be still alive and in that position to be able to compete ... we've just got to put our best foot forward over the next couple of weeks."

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