Richmond coach Terry Wallace says this week's clash with Adelaide will determine whether his Tigers have made genuine improvement in 2008 as he looks for his team to rebound strongly from last week's disastrous showing in Sydney.

Just as last year's wooden spooners finally looked to be showing some improvement - after more than two decades in the wilderness - along came the 82-point loss to the Swans.

Suddenly that performance, in which the Tigers conceded the first 11 goals, has raised questions as to just how much the team has improved this season in what is Wallace's fourth year in charge.

And considering those four years have yet to yield a finals berth, Wallace knows he cannot afford to see his team produce too many more such performances for the rest of the season.

But the Tigers coach said on Tuesday he does not believe his side should be written off on the basis of just one poor game - ahead of Saturday's testing clash against Adelaide at the MCG - after having beaten Essendon and Fremantle, drawn with the Western Bulldogs and pushed Hawthorn, Geelong and St Kilda in the previous six weeks.

"I can understand that (people again questioning the club's progress under Wallace) but people are quick to jump one way and then jump very quickly back the other way and that is the nature of the business," Wallace said.

"We have said ourselves we have made some real ground over the past six weeks and we have probably taken six steps forward and now one major step backwards."

"But it will be this weekend when we see whether we continue to march forward or we allow one game to impact on what we have done over a five- or six-week period."

However the Tigers' task to rebound strongly this week against Adelaide - whom they have beaten just once in the past 10 encounters - will not be made easier by the loss of skipper Kane Johnson with a knee injury.

And Wallace said that the Tigers may also make some further changes, saying there were about half a dozen players last week that did not play well enough to justify remaining in the side this week.

In the absence of Johnson - who could miss up to a month with a strained medial ligament - the Tigers will turn to their young vice-captains in Nathan Foley and Chris Newman to lead the side against the experienced Crows.

And Wallace made it clear that now was the time for not just Foley and Newman but the rest of the Tigers' next crop of leaders to stand up and be counted.

"It's a great opportunity for those guys (Foley and Newman) and others aspiring for leadership roles (in the future) to take up the slack because Kane has been good in driving the boys forward," he said.