The Tigers slumped to their 12th straight defeat at the hands of St Kilda but the final margin masked a gutsy performance from Hardwick’s men.
Despite failing to register a major until the 22-minute mark of the second term, the Tigers showed grit and determination to edge within 12 points during the third term before falling away in the final stanza.
With fellow forward Ben Griffiths a late withdrawal before the match, Riewoldt almost singlehandedly took the game up to one of the premiership favourites, one of only two goal kickers for his side.
While full of praise for the forward’s efforts, Hardwick was quick to point out the need to give the youngster adequate help in a developing side.
“Our forward line is going to be our achilles heel for the time being. Jack to his credit was outstanding and I thought he had some quality opposition,” Hardwick said.
“What we’ve got to do is develop that forward line so we can get him some help down there - it was an outstanding individual effort but he needs some help down there no doubt.”
Riewoldt was well aided by a midfield group that, like it has done so often this season, dominated the clearances throughout.
“I thought [Trent] Cotchin worked his way in and Dustin Martin competed really well and [Shane] Tuck was good also,” Hardwick said.
“We won the stoppages relatively easy but lost the turnovers. It was good from those guys’ point of view to generate some ball inside 50 but just not enough to get us over the line.”
However, despite the string of positives to draw from the match, Hardwick was under no illusions as to the areas it still desperately needed to improve on.
“We actually controlled the game and looked dominant in stages but we let ourselves down with some structure stuff that we’ll go through the tape and be able to eradicate,” he said.
“There was some really good signs but there’s some stuff we can clean up no doubt.”
Hardwick confirmed that Griffiths was likely to rejoin the side in next week’s match against West Coast while key midfielder Nathan Foley is also expected to come into the side.
