Richmond coach Adem Yze felt the risk was worth taking as he assessed the damage of a record loss to Gold Coast.
The Tigers were belted 16.11 (107) to 2.11 (23) on Saturday on the Gold Coast, narrowly avoiding their lowest total in 64 years with a goal in the final 90 seconds.
They fell to 5-15 and sit 16th, a season-ending knee injury to rookie Jonty Faull further pain for Yze and his men.
The coach admitted it wasn't "up to AFL standard" but said the ability to run the likes of Seth Campbell, Maurice Rioli Jnr and Taj Hotten through the midfield softened the blow.
"That outweighed the risk; we looked to the future a bit," he said.
"You just want to keep playing the right way.
"There was a bit of pain today; felt like we may have taken a step backwards, but that's going to happen.
"We're not going to turn our toes up for the rest of the season … we lick our wounds and move on."
Harry Armstrong, duelling with seasoned Suns defender Sam Collins, was one of the Tigers' two goal-kickers in his first game since a serious hamstring injury in early April.
"You just learn from it," Yze said of Armstrong's tough night out.
"We're growing. To belong on an AFL field isn't just to play well, it's to learn from when you're getting beaten, or against good defenders.
"He hadn't played for 16 weeks … we wanted to get him back to AFL level as quickly as we could."
Yze said Faull's injury was likely a medial ligament "tweak" rather than more-serious anterior cruciate tear but still enough to end the rookie's season.
