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Richmond had no answers for a rampant North Melbourne but coach Damien Hardwick is confident they will respond against AFL ladder-leaders Geelong.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick concedes the Tigers were "manhandled" by North Melbourne in an upset AFL defeat at Marvel Stadium.

But Hardwick expects his players to quickly bounce back from Friday night's 15.9 (99) to 9.8 (62) defeat ahead of next week's clash with ladder-leaders Geelong.

An inspired North won the tackle count (68-55) and contested possessions (153-130) in their first game under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw and notably took every opportunity to put Tigers key forward Tom Lynch under physical duress.

"We got manhandled in and around the contest," Hardwick lamented.

"It was a disappointing performance, there's no doubt about that, but I'm confident we'll bounce back.

"What we're finding in the competition at the moment is it's very hard to win consecutive games. We'd won four on the trot and there hasn't been a great sequence of long (winning) streaks.

"The competition's incredibly even. You can be off by 10 per cent and you can get smacked around like we did tonight."

Little went right for Richmond despite another superb performance from Dustin Martin, who slotted three goals and had 21 touches.

Bolstered by the return of skipper Trent Cotchin from a long-term hamstring injury, the Tigers started promisingly but were beaten convincingly at the contests.

Small forward Dan Butler booted two goals after being recalled in place of Daniel Rioli, who Hardwick revealed had been demoted to work on his defensive pressure.

"It was tough because he's a very capable player," Hardwick said.

"We had a player in Dan Butler who was tearing the VFL apart. He came up tonight and played okay.

"Daniel's got some strengths, especially around the defensive part of his game, that he can get better ... he's understanding of that.

"The highlights tape of him today, you look at that and that's a player we need and that's a player we want back. He's not too far away from it."