GOLD Coast coach Damien Hardwick has played down the severity of star recruit Christian Petracca's hamstring injury, labelling it as "hamstring awareness".

Petracca came from the field during the third quarter of the Suns' 68-point win over Richmond at the MCG on Saturday afternoon and didn't return to the ground.

TIGERS v SUNS Full match coverage and stats

"He (Petracca) just got pushed as he kicked, had a little bit of hamstring awareness, so we sort of just parked him really," Hardwick said.

"He's obviously an important player for us. We've got a bye next week, so we'll just work our way through the process of getting him scanned and then once we have more information we'll give it to you."

It was the Norm Smith Medallist's first game at the MCG since becoming a Sun and the former Demon was industrious, racking up 20 disposals and 10 score involvements before the injury hit.

Following the bye, the Suns will face Petracca's former side Melbourne at the MCG. Hardwick said he was hopeful Petracca would be available to play.

"Obviously we're always hopeful, but from our point of view we'll just wait until our doctors can assess it and then we'll figure out what the correct decision will be," Hardwick said.

"I think he's just keen to play, he loves playing, you see the smile on his face, he's just loving, I think the way his footy's going first and foremost. He's probably been pretty close to the best player in the first couple of rounds.

"He's just also loving the fact that he's got a new lease of life, a new footy club, he's been a revelation for us both on and off the field. We're very, very lucky to have him in our club."

After a poor second half against West Coast last week, the Suns had a slow start in Saturday’s game against Richmond with the young Tigers leading by six points midway through the second quarter. 

The Suns’ coach said he was disappointed with how his side started Saturday's match.

"I thought we started sluggish, I'm not sure exactly why," Hardwick said. 

"I thought they (Richmond) defended really well, they won a lot of contests, we kept kicking it long down the line and they kept winning it, which is not how we wanted to play, once the guys rectified that, the game started to look like our style of football, which is important."

Arguably best on ground was key forward Ben King who kicked an equal-career best seven goals to take his tally to 16 majors from three games this season.

"He's very efficient, isn't he? He's a beautiful kicker of the ball," Hardwick said.

"What I will say, he's had a wonderful off-season, his pre-season's been fantastic. It's the first full pre-season he's done and I think he's starting to see the benefits of that.

"He's moving as good as I've seen, he was able to do a lot of craft work, a lot of aerial power, so we're really, really impressed with the way he's going."

For the Tigers, coach Adem Yze was pleased with the fight of his young group who matched it with the premiership contenders at times throughout the game.

"That was obviously the positive (to come) out of the game against a really strong team that's in really good form, to be neck and neck with them halfway through the second," Yze said.

"Our game looked really strong; clearance, contest. Territory was a bit of a red flag for us in the first quarter but we felt like we started to arrest that in that second. But then obviously when 'Lynchy' (Tom Lynch) went down, it does throw your structure out a fair bit."

Tom Lynch left the match in the second term and captain Toby Nankervis in the third, leaving the inexperienced Tigers without two of their leaders.

Yze was hopeful that the both injuries were on the minor scale.

"Lynch, he just reached for it. And then 'Nank', yeah, same sort of thing, just striding. So they felt both of them were just a small tweak," Yze said.

"But until you get a scan, you can never predict how many (weeks). So hopefully it is a short-term thing, not a long-term thing for both of them."