Richmond coach Terry Wallace says it is a dearth of quality, not player discontent, that has the losses mounting for the embattled Tigers.

After a horror week off the field, Richmond capitulated to Essendon in the second half at the MCG on Saturday night, conceding 12 goals to three after the long break to lose 19.11 (125) to 12.13 (85).

But despite allegations that captain Chris Newman asked Wallace to resign in the lead-up to the match on behalf of a disgruntled section of players, Wallace said there was plenty of evidence the players' effort and desire remained high.

He said the club was No.2 in the AFL in winning contested football this season and dominated that area for much of the game against the Bombers, which demonstrated their intensity.

But he said that once again they lacked the polish to capitalise on their hard work.

"All of our parameters of hardness have been reasonably up, so that side of it's there," Wallace said.

"But when it goes to the parameters of genuine quality, at the moment we're running short and that's the reality.

"You can be as hard as you like and cracking in at the contest, but unless you can get some quality to go along with that you're not going to get results.

"So do we need to look at the balance of that, that's the sort of stuff we need to discuss, because clearly what's going out on the park now can't get the job done.

"I think it's trying hard most games, I think we've been in most games at some stage ... but they're just lacking that real quality to get it finished."

Of his own enthusiasm to continue in a dead end job, with his coaching career almost certainly drawing to a close, Wallace joked he was "loving every minute of it".

"I'm just doing my job and that's what I said I would do," he said more seriously.

"Obviously we're losing games, we've got to look at why we're losing games.

"We've got to look at the personnel and see who can take us forward and who can't take us forward."

But he said if he could not cope with hard times he would not be coaching.

"If you don't relish challenges in this game of ours then you shouldn't be in the game," Wallace said.

"It dishes up some fascinating things and obviously it's dished up a pretty interesting week this week."

Midfielder Daniel Jackson said the players remained positive despite the bleak outlook.

"If we had have come out (against Essendon) and won I think that would have taken more pressure off and the fans really would have appreciated it obviously," Jackson said.

"They appreciate it every week but after a week like that of course it would have taken the pressure off the playing group.

"But we know where we're going wrong and we still really enjoy our footy and we're just looking forward to having another crack next week."

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