I’ve been saying it for years; Hardwick is a lousy, lousy game day coach. His holistic approach to footy has worked and worked well with a commanding list of players in their prime, and a support coaching group, since gone, that did the grunt work on the training track (and were bloody good at it), that allowed him the freedom to play to the media and take a lot of credit, while building a culture of comradery among the playing group.
Move forward to an aging list, the worst injury list in the AFL that grows on a weekly basis; the best of the assistant coaches long gone and some glaring recruiting mistakes has left Hardwick exposed.
His game day performances, even in premiership winning years was at best ordinary, but now it’s diabolical. Too few moves (in responding to what is unfolding before his eyes on the field), far too late if he makes moves at all. He’s repetitive rhetoric after the game is motivated by the same political correctness he bought into after his trips to the States, and the AFL sanitizing football, making Hardwick look foolish at times.
A 10-year player in any team would be sizing up finishing their careers; the same should be said of a coach. Hardwick should have no complaints with his time at the RFC nor should the club feel anything but putting the club first if they quietly went about looking for a coaching replacement. While tapping a number of veterans on the shoulder.
Intelligent change, based on need and replenishing, is desperately required now at Richmond and the coaching situation needs to be looked at as part of this process.
I had to wait until the dust settled after the debacle against the Roo’s, to write this post. I do so now, knowing I’ll cop some flak but that’s okay. We’re all here to express an opinion.
The Tigers now, under Hardwick and his assistants which also includes the MC is a spent force. Change is inevitable; but change caused by an aging list (with record numbers of injuries to the cream of that list), and the departure of some top-flight assistants, together with some very ordinary player selections and the continual hammering Richmond receives from the AFL controlled football press has not been handled well at all by the club, the players and the senior coach.
Change invites change and the club needs to be open to that invitation and requirement to change and to re-group and move forward successfully. It’s not doing that and my fear is it will settle for the easy option and tinker around the edges, with a steady but continual erosion of mind-set and performances on the field.
On Hardwick; I have always felt he has got the most out of his limited skill-set; with the incredible support and patience of the club who surrounded him with first rate assistants after 2016 because he needs that sort of help. An improving playing list with a sprinkling of bonafide champions was maturing and hungry and the rest they say is history. Well, it is history; a glorious 3-time premiership history but that was then.
Hardwick is not a great coach. He’s a bonder, a face for the media (which has become predictable and sadly repetitive), and perhaps the worst game day coach that I can remember. Enough has been written about his failure to respond to a game unravelling before his eyes. Selections have been self-defeating and repeating those mistakes again and again is not a good look for him (great coaches don’t repeat such glaring mistakes) and it must be demoralizing for those busting their guts out on the field.
Like a Shane Edwards, I believe Hardwick’s time at Richmond has come the full circle, and in a perfect world he would say thank you to a lot of people that supported him and worked with him and resign at the end of the season with his reputation intact and with the gratitude of Tiger supporters. There is such an obvious disconnect between what he says at his pressers, what is not happening at training and what all of us can see during a game. He started at the Tigers in 2010. Twelve years is a long time in the AFL to be coaching the same side.
I like Leppa as a replacement by the way.
