Richmond caretaker coach Jade Rawlings has fired a stinging shot at the AFL club's culture, saying for too long Tigers players have gone missing when the heat is on.

Rawlings says the Tigers, who have reached just two finals series in 27 years, most recently in 2001, face a long, hard road before they can expect success.

He says Sunday's 18.15 (123) to 10.8 (68) loss to Sydney at the MCG is the latest in a long history of Richmond players wilting too easily under pressure.

"People have been talking about cultural issues at Richmond for a long time, however long they think it's been going on for," Rawlings said.

"But unfortunately our players go back to habits which are bad reflections on them.

"Because they can't, when it gets tough, fight through it and do something to try to help a mate or if it's not working out for them individually, still have an involvement, still bring something to the table which is going to have an impact on the team."

While the Tigers' skills were mostly terrible, Rawlings said the bigger issue was mental.

He said former West Coast premiership player and Brownlow Medallist Ben Cousins, who was playing his 250th AFL match and 12th for the Tigers, had already demonstrated in those dozen games the kind of spirit that too many teammates lacked.

"He turns up every week, he doesn't pick and choose, he just turns up and gives what he's got every week," he said.

In a similar vein, he highlighted Sydney co-captain Brett Kirk, who failed to provide much midfield drive with just 14 possessions, but made sure his presence was felt with 14 tackles and constant encouragement of teammates.

"He brings what he brings every week," Rawlings said.

"We have people who pick and choose what they want to bring to the game every week, who's going to turn up and that's a question mark on a lot of our players."

Rawlings said once a few Richmond players dropped their heads, others followed, and the pessimistic mood quickly infiltrated the team.

As one of the candidates to take the coaching job permanently, he said there would be no quick fix.

"It needs a lot of hard work. There's a lot of change that needs to be made," he said.

"I think over the last seven weeks we've been able to tap into that change, but it was a big step backwards today."

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