Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is "absolutely" convinced that his side will be better again next year, despite having its heart broken by a third consecutive elimination final loss.

North Melbourne will play Sydney for a spot in the preliminary finals, but will prepare for the Saturday night clash with the Swans with Lindsay Thomas on report.

Thomas was booked just a couple of minutes after being subbed into the match late in the third quarter, having kicked up at opponent Dylan Grimes while lying on the ground.

Thomas connected with Grimes' chest and was penalised 50 metres, Richmond kicking a goal at the end of the play.

Disappointed that the Tigers' got "poleaxed" on the contested ball count and with the performance of some of his senior players, Hardwick said the team had plenty of scope for improvement.

The 17-point defeat followed losses to Carlton (2013) and Port Adelaide (2014) but Hardwick said his side had improved on last year and would get even better by adding to the team and developing young players already at hand.

He said the fact West Coast had been beaten in three successive elimination finals and then gone on to play in the 2005 and 2006 grand finals showed the jump that could be made.

"Probably last year we fell over the line, really. This year we earned our place a lot more but unfortunately when we needed to execute on a day in September we didn't," Hardwick said.

"We didn't perform today, from a playing group to a coaching group. We didn't get the job done and unfortunately in our game there's no best of five.

"If we get to bounce back and play North Melbourne next week we might win. We'd probably win, but the fact of the matter is we don't.

"The fact of the matter is, we put ourselves in a position to contend and we failed today. We've just got to give ourselves an opportunity to get back there next year.

"There's certainly some areas of our game we need to improve and know we can improve, so that's what we'll be working on.

"From a performance point of view we didn't execute today. We learn from that and we move on, but unfortunately there's no guarantees you're going to get back into the finals.

"But we're a better side this time as compared to the last 12 months, and I reckon we'll improve again.

"Hang in there with us. We know we can play better than that. Unfortunately it wasn't our day today. We were beaten by a better side on the day.

"We didn't play anywhere near the level I know we could. We've got some talented players who were down today."

Hardwick said the Tigers' poor contested possession count was at the heart of the defeat, forcing them to chase their opponents for too long.

Trent Cotchin was one of the star Tigers who struggled — held to nine possessions by Ben Jacobs — with Hardwick unsure how much help his skipper could have been given.

"I thought Jacobs did a good job. You can only help so much really. Cotch is an elite midfielder of the competition and sometimes you've got to fight your own battles," he said.

" He's a quality player. It doesn't happen often, it happened today. He'll learn from it and bounce back."

Hardwick said the idea of moving Alex Rance onto Jarrad Waite — who finished with four goals on Jake Batchelor — was discussed all game in the coaches box.

Waite kicked three of his goals by half-time — when Richmond led by four points — with Drew Petrie and Ben Brown adding to the North Melbourne score later in the game.

"We were in front obviously and from our point of view, then we would have had to put Batchelor onto Petrie, who's really tall, obviously.

"It was probably the best (option) of the lot. They're blessed with incredibly tall forwards, athletic forwards as well. It was a constant conversation, there's no doubt about that."

Hardwick also described as "diabolical" a non-decision on North onballer Ben Cunnington, who was stripped of the ball in Richmond's forward pocket late in the game.

The Roos were able to take the ball to the other end and score a goal, stretching the lead to 10 points.

"That was a diabolical decision, really. I can understand one guy being blindsided but there were probably two other blokes. I reckon 80,000 people here could see the decision."

Richmond still have not won a final since beating Carlton in a 2001 semi-final under then-coach Danny Frawley.