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Damien Hardwick
- Thread starter Tigers of Old
- Start date
In his last years at Richmond, Damien Hardwick now recognises he was simultaneously over-coaching and barely coaching at all.
The two seemingly contradictory observations help explain the fugue the former Tigers coach got into when he left midway through last season. The team had come to know his game so well he managed people but barely instructed them how to play. He can see now that as he strived to find that extra edge, he added more layers to their game when fewer would have been better. He overloaded them.
His first senior AFL game as coach of the Suns will be against Richmond, a team that knows the game he is trying to instil in the Suns better than the Suns players do.
Ahead of that clash, this masthead spent two days embedded with the Suns in team and recruiting meetings, at training, and interviewing staff and the triple-premiership coach.
The clear impression now is of a club being moulded in Hardwick’s image. The Suns are looking like Richmond II. Which is a good thing.
In a candid assessment of the last year and the job ahead, Hardwick:
Dismisses the idea that his new job at the Suns was a done deal when he left Richmond, saying “that’s society. I think we always look at the conspiracy theory, whether it’s COVID, JFK (the US president’s assassination) or whether it’s landing on the moon, there’s always going to be people that lend itself to that side.”
Has been re-invigorated on the Gold Coast by being “back on the tools” actually coaching a game plan.
Has given Suns game-breaker Bailey Humphrey the Dustin Martin-type licence to put himself wherever he thinks he can be damaging.
Reinforced that the Suns have to get past talk and gimmicks and “win some f---ing games”. Finals should be an expectation.
“I think when you’ve been in an organisation for like 13 or 14 years, you become more of a man manager. So you’re allowing other people to step up. What is happening now is I’m more on the tools,” Hardwick said.
“Where you play a style of game over a number of years the majority of your coaching staff and your playing group have got a really good understanding about role execution and system. Right now, it’s more hands on.
“You’ve coached for a long time and you start trying to add layers and layers and layers, and yes, you end up probably making the game harder than what it has to actually be sometimes.
“The game is incredibly complex so let’s simplify that. Let’s not over-coach during the week. And I think, if I’m being completely honest with myself, that’s probably the way I tended to go towards the back stages [of my time at Richmond]. I tried to over coach a little bit, which I think happens from time to time because if things aren’t going too well you feel like you’ve got to step in.
“I think I’ve become a little bit more relaxed and I’ve got a greater understanding about the players. Give them a framework, give them a system and then just let them play the game.”
Richmond 2.0
There was already a Richmond flavour to the Suns before Hardwick arrived. The former Richmond captain and champion player Wayne Campbell, who was also an assistant coach under Hardwick at Tigers, is the Suns’ head of footy. Craig Cameron, who had been the head of footy that signed Hardwick to coach Richmond, is now the Suns’ list manager. Former Tigers player Brad Miller is also a Suns assistant coach.
But the arrival of Hardwick has made that Richmond-ness more pronounced. Hardwick has brought in as senior assistant coach his former premiership player Shaun Grigg, whom Hardwick declares a certainty to one day be a senior coach.
Sitting in recruiting and team meetings, listening to Hardwick’s language, looking at the style of player he wants and what roles they play, it is all unmistakably Richmond. Or more accurately, it is all unmistakably Hardwick. He is bringing to the Suns what he brought to Richmond.
The roles he has for Suns players could almost be substituted in on a Richmond whiteboard. There’s Humphrey as “Dusty”, the dangerous matchwinner licensed to deploy himself wherever he thinks he can make an impact (don’t confuse that with being as good as Martin – not yet anyway). Brayden Fiorini and Sam Clohesy as Kamdyn McIntosh or Jack Graham, the role-playing, hard-running wingers. Alex Sexton has switched to defence to be a counter-punching running defender and the more dynamic Lachie Weller will assume this creative Bachar Houli-Daniel Rioli role when he returns from injury. Darcy Macpherson is being trialled as a Kane Lambert type.
Hardwick already has an emerging star full-forward in Ben King and an enviable midfield group of talent that plays a combative style of game.
The way they defend in a rolling zone, the way they move the ball and play for territory more than possession, the way they are trying to set up defensively even when attacking – it all looks like a Hardwick game. The type of talent he wants is there to be able to play the game in the way he wants them to play. How long it takes for it to become intuitive will be critical.
After the practice game against the Brisbane Lions on Thursday night, some at the Suns were initially flat they had not done better. The sober reality is it was the first time they had ventured out with a new style of game and it was against mature, finely tuned opposition that played in last year’s grand final – and who look hungry and desperate.
It is also worth recalling that in his first year at Collingwood, after his first nine rounds in charge, Craig McRae had only four wins, but his team went on to make the preliminary final. Last year, in his first season in charge Adam Kingsley’s Giants had only four wins from the first 12 matches – but also made a preliminary final. Both were instilling a Richmond-heavy game style. Change takes time.
Mrs Hardwick
Hardwick was the coach who most embraced the trend of being open and vulnerable to build connections with and between his players. An emotional man, he is a “giver” who would often personalise stories and invoke his wife Danielle – “Mrs Hardwick”. It was jarring then for some – former captain Trent Cotchin spoke of this in his recently published book – when Hardwick subsequently split with Danielle and began a new relationship with a then Richmond employee.
With time and space for reflection, Hardwick says he does not regret the narrative he created from personal stories and references and will not change his style.
“No, I don’t [regret the family references] because, Danielle and my kids have been an enormous part of my life for 25-30 years. And Danielle will always be a part of my life. She’s a mother to my three wonderful kids, and we’ve still got a reasonably solid relationship, but things change and that’s the reality.
“Could things be done a bit better along the way and not played out in public? Yeah probably, but you can’t go back, you can only forge your way forward. The way I coach and the way I approach things I’ll always be open, I’ll always be honest, and I might be too much of a sharer but I’d rather be that than the opposite way.
“I want the players to know that I’m emotional and that I’m vulnerable at stages and I am struggling because the fact of the matter is, we all do it.
“One thing I’ve learnt, and I’ve learnt a lot of great lessons from a lot of great people, Trent being one of those and Dustin and these type of people, is that you’ve got to have conversations where you do feel uncomfortable, and you do share things that are going to put you a little bit not at ease, but that’s helped people and clubs and organisations.”
hardwick-on-why-he-left-tigers-feeling-reinvigorated-and-the-sun-with-potential-to-be-special
‘Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole’
Hardwick smiles as soon as Bailey Humphrey’s name is mentioned. He knows he is poised to say something inflammatory and wonders if he should check himself. He goes ahead anyway.
“I think [Humphrey’s] got the potential to be quite special,” Hardwick said, selecting his adjective carefully.
“He is a potential matchwinner. He’s a doer, if that makes sense, and the more instruction you give him the worse player he is, so he just plays.
“I’ve told this to Bailey, ‘Wherever you reckon you are needed, you go’. I look at him and I think you know what, you know better than me. He’s one of those players. He just sees the game really well. He’s got a good understanding ... he needs to put himself where he is needed.
“That’s what good players do. Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole, on the day if you think you can impact the game there then go there.”
That takes a certain type of maturity and confidence at his young age, to walk into the centre square and kick out a player such as Touk Miller. There are precious few players like that. Martin is one, Christian Petracca, Toby Greene, Patrick Dangerfield and Jordan De Goey are others. Humphrey isn’t as good as any of them yet, but he plays as they do and has the licence they do.
The master asks the apprentice for help
Despite his experience, so much felt new at Gold Coast that Hardwick found himself reaching out to his former assistant Kingsley for advice.
“I’ve coached for a long time, but I was ringing ‘Kingy’ up for advice saying, ‘What do you do here? What’s different?’
Loading
“He’s saying, ‘Yeah, you gotta keep doing this’. It’s funny. He’s been coaching for 12 months and I’m asking him questions.
“But they [Kingsley and McRae] are good coaches. I hope there’s more of it, the long apprenticeships. I sort of laugh at myself when I first got into the game and I got a job within four or five years. It’s embarrassing, really, when you think of the lack of apprenticeship at the time and the problem is – it’s a little bit like kids today and my kids are the same – everyone’s in a rush to get to it but as soon as you’re in a senior coaching job, you’re close to getting the sack.”
No more gimmicks
Loading
Hardwick is clear that the Suns “became a footy club” under former coach Stuart Dew and his team, as well as Cameron, Campbell and CEO Mark Evans.
“The players stopped leaving, which is so important, you know, and we hopefully are going to benefit from that in the not too distant future.
“What our next challenge is, we start, you know, no more gimmicks. Let’s just win some f---ing games. That’s always going to take us where we need to go. And that’s what it’s going to start, bringing crowds and people and players and staff to our footy club, no question. We’ve got to get the job done.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
www.theage.com.au
The two seemingly contradictory observations help explain the fugue the former Tigers coach got into when he left midway through last season. The team had come to know his game so well he managed people but barely instructed them how to play. He can see now that as he strived to find that extra edge, he added more layers to their game when fewer would have been better. He overloaded them.
His first senior AFL game as coach of the Suns will be against Richmond, a team that knows the game he is trying to instil in the Suns better than the Suns players do.
Ahead of that clash, this masthead spent two days embedded with the Suns in team and recruiting meetings, at training, and interviewing staff and the triple-premiership coach.
The clear impression now is of a club being moulded in Hardwick’s image. The Suns are looking like Richmond II. Which is a good thing.
In a candid assessment of the last year and the job ahead, Hardwick:
Dismisses the idea that his new job at the Suns was a done deal when he left Richmond, saying “that’s society. I think we always look at the conspiracy theory, whether it’s COVID, JFK (the US president’s assassination) or whether it’s landing on the moon, there’s always going to be people that lend itself to that side.”
Has been re-invigorated on the Gold Coast by being “back on the tools” actually coaching a game plan.
Has given Suns game-breaker Bailey Humphrey the Dustin Martin-type licence to put himself wherever he thinks he can be damaging.
Reinforced that the Suns have to get past talk and gimmicks and “win some f---ing games”. Finals should be an expectation.
“I think when you’ve been in an organisation for like 13 or 14 years, you become more of a man manager. So you’re allowing other people to step up. What is happening now is I’m more on the tools,” Hardwick said.
“Where you play a style of game over a number of years the majority of your coaching staff and your playing group have got a really good understanding about role execution and system. Right now, it’s more hands on.
“You’ve coached for a long time and you start trying to add layers and layers and layers, and yes, you end up probably making the game harder than what it has to actually be sometimes.
“The game is incredibly complex so let’s simplify that. Let’s not over-coach during the week. And I think, if I’m being completely honest with myself, that’s probably the way I tended to go towards the back stages [of my time at Richmond]. I tried to over coach a little bit, which I think happens from time to time because if things aren’t going too well you feel like you’ve got to step in.
“I think I’ve become a little bit more relaxed and I’ve got a greater understanding about the players. Give them a framework, give them a system and then just let them play the game.”
Richmond 2.0
There was already a Richmond flavour to the Suns before Hardwick arrived. The former Richmond captain and champion player Wayne Campbell, who was also an assistant coach under Hardwick at Tigers, is the Suns’ head of footy. Craig Cameron, who had been the head of footy that signed Hardwick to coach Richmond, is now the Suns’ list manager. Former Tigers player Brad Miller is also a Suns assistant coach.
But the arrival of Hardwick has made that Richmond-ness more pronounced. Hardwick has brought in as senior assistant coach his former premiership player Shaun Grigg, whom Hardwick declares a certainty to one day be a senior coach.
Sitting in recruiting and team meetings, listening to Hardwick’s language, looking at the style of player he wants and what roles they play, it is all unmistakably Richmond. Or more accurately, it is all unmistakably Hardwick. He is bringing to the Suns what he brought to Richmond.
The roles he has for Suns players could almost be substituted in on a Richmond whiteboard. There’s Humphrey as “Dusty”, the dangerous matchwinner licensed to deploy himself wherever he thinks he can make an impact (don’t confuse that with being as good as Martin – not yet anyway). Brayden Fiorini and Sam Clohesy as Kamdyn McIntosh or Jack Graham, the role-playing, hard-running wingers. Alex Sexton has switched to defence to be a counter-punching running defender and the more dynamic Lachie Weller will assume this creative Bachar Houli-Daniel Rioli role when he returns from injury. Darcy Macpherson is being trialled as a Kane Lambert type.
Hardwick already has an emerging star full-forward in Ben King and an enviable midfield group of talent that plays a combative style of game.
The way they defend in a rolling zone, the way they move the ball and play for territory more than possession, the way they are trying to set up defensively even when attacking – it all looks like a Hardwick game. The type of talent he wants is there to be able to play the game in the way he wants them to play. How long it takes for it to become intuitive will be critical.
After the practice game against the Brisbane Lions on Thursday night, some at the Suns were initially flat they had not done better. The sober reality is it was the first time they had ventured out with a new style of game and it was against mature, finely tuned opposition that played in last year’s grand final – and who look hungry and desperate.
It is also worth recalling that in his first year at Collingwood, after his first nine rounds in charge, Craig McRae had only four wins, but his team went on to make the preliminary final. Last year, in his first season in charge Adam Kingsley’s Giants had only four wins from the first 12 matches – but also made a preliminary final. Both were instilling a Richmond-heavy game style. Change takes time.
Mrs Hardwick
Hardwick was the coach who most embraced the trend of being open and vulnerable to build connections with and between his players. An emotional man, he is a “giver” who would often personalise stories and invoke his wife Danielle – “Mrs Hardwick”. It was jarring then for some – former captain Trent Cotchin spoke of this in his recently published book – when Hardwick subsequently split with Danielle and began a new relationship with a then Richmond employee.
With time and space for reflection, Hardwick says he does not regret the narrative he created from personal stories and references and will not change his style.
“No, I don’t [regret the family references] because, Danielle and my kids have been an enormous part of my life for 25-30 years. And Danielle will always be a part of my life. She’s a mother to my three wonderful kids, and we’ve still got a reasonably solid relationship, but things change and that’s the reality.
“Could things be done a bit better along the way and not played out in public? Yeah probably, but you can’t go back, you can only forge your way forward. The way I coach and the way I approach things I’ll always be open, I’ll always be honest, and I might be too much of a sharer but I’d rather be that than the opposite way.
“I want the players to know that I’m emotional and that I’m vulnerable at stages and I am struggling because the fact of the matter is, we all do it.
“One thing I’ve learnt, and I’ve learnt a lot of great lessons from a lot of great people, Trent being one of those and Dustin and these type of people, is that you’ve got to have conversations where you do feel uncomfortable, and you do share things that are going to put you a little bit not at ease, but that’s helped people and clubs and organisations.”
hardwick-on-why-he-left-tigers-feeling-reinvigorated-and-the-sun-with-potential-to-be-special
‘Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole’
Hardwick smiles as soon as Bailey Humphrey’s name is mentioned. He knows he is poised to say something inflammatory and wonders if he should check himself. He goes ahead anyway.
“I think [Humphrey’s] got the potential to be quite special,” Hardwick said, selecting his adjective carefully.
“He is a potential matchwinner. He’s a doer, if that makes sense, and the more instruction you give him the worse player he is, so he just plays.
“I’ve told this to Bailey, ‘Wherever you reckon you are needed, you go’. I look at him and I think you know what, you know better than me. He’s one of those players. He just sees the game really well. He’s got a good understanding ... he needs to put himself where he is needed.
“That’s what good players do. Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole, on the day if you think you can impact the game there then go there.”
That takes a certain type of maturity and confidence at his young age, to walk into the centre square and kick out a player such as Touk Miller. There are precious few players like that. Martin is one, Christian Petracca, Toby Greene, Patrick Dangerfield and Jordan De Goey are others. Humphrey isn’t as good as any of them yet, but he plays as they do and has the licence they do.
The master asks the apprentice for help
Despite his experience, so much felt new at Gold Coast that Hardwick found himself reaching out to his former assistant Kingsley for advice.
“I’ve coached for a long time, but I was ringing ‘Kingy’ up for advice saying, ‘What do you do here? What’s different?’
Loading
“He’s saying, ‘Yeah, you gotta keep doing this’. It’s funny. He’s been coaching for 12 months and I’m asking him questions.
“But they [Kingsley and McRae] are good coaches. I hope there’s more of it, the long apprenticeships. I sort of laugh at myself when I first got into the game and I got a job within four or five years. It’s embarrassing, really, when you think of the lack of apprenticeship at the time and the problem is – it’s a little bit like kids today and my kids are the same – everyone’s in a rush to get to it but as soon as you’re in a senior coaching job, you’re close to getting the sack.”
No more gimmicks
Loading
Hardwick is clear that the Suns “became a footy club” under former coach Stuart Dew and his team, as well as Cameron, Campbell and CEO Mark Evans.
“The players stopped leaving, which is so important, you know, and we hopefully are going to benefit from that in the not too distant future.
“What our next challenge is, we start, you know, no more gimmicks. Let’s just win some f---ing games. That’s always going to take us where we need to go. And that’s what it’s going to start, bringing crowds and people and players and staff to our footy club, no question. We’ve got to get the job done.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
Hardwick on why he left Tigers, feeling reinvigorated and the Sun with potential to be ‘special’
After more than a decade at Richmond, Damien Hardwick has begun a new chapter at Gold Coast. He talks to Michael Gleeson about being reinvigorated by his new club, the young Sun with a licence to do a “Dusty” and why he doesn’t regret being open about his family life to build connections.
Good read. Hopefully that puts the rumour of why he left when he did to rest once and for all...but somehow I doubt it.In his last years at Richmond, Damien Hardwick now recognises he was simultaneously over-coaching and barely coaching at all.
The two seemingly contradictory observations help explain the fugue the former Tigers coach got into when he left midway through last season. The team had come to know his game so well he managed people but barely instructed them how to play. He can see now that as he strived to find that extra edge, he added more layers to their game when fewer would have been better. He overloaded them.
His first senior AFL game as coach of the Suns will be against Richmond, a team that knows the game he is trying to instil in the Suns better than the Suns players do.
Ahead of that clash, this masthead spent two days embedded with the Suns in team and recruiting meetings, at training, and interviewing staff and the triple-premiership coach.
The clear impression now is of a club being moulded in Hardwick’s image. The Suns are looking like Richmond II. Which is a good thing.
In a candid assessment of the last year and the job ahead, Hardwick:
Dismisses the idea that his new job at the Suns was a done deal when he left Richmond, saying “that’s society. I think we always look at the conspiracy theory, whether it’s COVID, JFK (the US president’s assassination) or whether it’s landing on the moon, there’s always going to be people that lend itself to that side.”
Has been re-invigorated on the Gold Coast by being “back on the tools” actually coaching a game plan.
Has given Suns game-breaker Bailey Humphrey the Dustin Martin-type licence to put himself wherever he thinks he can be damaging.
Reinforced that the Suns have to get past talk and gimmicks and “win some f---ing games”. Finals should be an expectation.
“I think when you’ve been in an organisation for like 13 or 14 years, you become more of a man manager. So you’re allowing other people to step up. What is happening now is I’m more on the tools,” Hardwick said.
“Where you play a style of game over a number of years the majority of your coaching staff and your playing group have got a really good understanding about role execution and system. Right now, it’s more hands on.
“You’ve coached for a long time and you start trying to add layers and layers and layers, and yes, you end up probably making the game harder than what it has to actually be sometimes.
“The game is incredibly complex so let’s simplify that. Let’s not over-coach during the week. And I think, if I’m being completely honest with myself, that’s probably the way I tended to go towards the back stages [of my time at Richmond]. I tried to over coach a little bit, which I think happens from time to time because if things aren’t going too well you feel like you’ve got to step in.
“I think I’ve become a little bit more relaxed and I’ve got a greater understanding about the players. Give them a framework, give them a system and then just let them play the game.”
Richmond 2.0
There was already a Richmond flavour to the Suns before Hardwick arrived. The former Richmond captain and champion player Wayne Campbell, who was also an assistant coach under Hardwick at Tigers, is the Suns’ head of footy. Craig Cameron, who had been the head of footy that signed Hardwick to coach Richmond, is now the Suns’ list manager. Former Tigers player Brad Miller is also a Suns assistant coach.
But the arrival of Hardwick has made that Richmond-ness more pronounced. Hardwick has brought in as senior assistant coach his former premiership player Shaun Grigg, whom Hardwick declares a certainty to one day be a senior coach.
Sitting in recruiting and team meetings, listening to Hardwick’s language, looking at the style of player he wants and what roles they play, it is all unmistakably Richmond. Or more accurately, it is all unmistakably Hardwick. He is bringing to the Suns what he brought to Richmond.
The roles he has for Suns players could almost be substituted in on a Richmond whiteboard. There’s Humphrey as “Dusty”, the dangerous matchwinner licensed to deploy himself wherever he thinks he can make an impact (don’t confuse that with being as good as Martin – not yet anyway). Brayden Fiorini and Sam Clohesy as Kamdyn McIntosh or Jack Graham, the role-playing, hard-running wingers. Alex Sexton has switched to defence to be a counter-punching running defender and the more dynamic Lachie Weller will assume this creative Bachar Houli-Daniel Rioli role when he returns from injury. Darcy Macpherson is being trialled as a Kane Lambert type.
Hardwick already has an emerging star full-forward in Ben King and an enviable midfield group of talent that plays a combative style of game.
The way they defend in a rolling zone, the way they move the ball and play for territory more than possession, the way they are trying to set up defensively even when attacking – it all looks like a Hardwick game. The type of talent he wants is there to be able to play the game in the way he wants them to play. How long it takes for it to become intuitive will be critical.
After the practice game against the Brisbane Lions on Thursday night, some at the Suns were initially flat they had not done better. The sober reality is it was the first time they had ventured out with a new style of game and it was against mature, finely tuned opposition that played in last year’s grand final – and who look hungry and desperate.
It is also worth recalling that in his first year at Collingwood, after his first nine rounds in charge, Craig McRae had only four wins, but his team went on to make the preliminary final. Last year, in his first season in charge Adam Kingsley’s Giants had only four wins from the first 12 matches – but also made a preliminary final. Both were instilling a Richmond-heavy game style. Change takes time.
Mrs Hardwick
Hardwick was the coach who most embraced the trend of being open and vulnerable to build connections with and between his players. An emotional man, he is a “giver” who would often personalise stories and invoke his wife Danielle – “Mrs Hardwick”. It was jarring then for some – former captain Trent Cotchin spoke of this in his recently published book – when Hardwick subsequently split with Danielle and began a new relationship with a then Richmond employee.
With time and space for reflection, Hardwick says he does not regret the narrative he created from personal stories and references and will not change his style.
“No, I don’t [regret the family references] because, Danielle and my kids have been an enormous part of my life for 25-30 years. And Danielle will always be a part of my life. She’s a mother to my three wonderful kids, and we’ve still got a reasonably solid relationship, but things change and that’s the reality.
“Could things be done a bit better along the way and not played out in public? Yeah probably, but you can’t go back, you can only forge your way forward. The way I coach and the way I approach things I’ll always be open, I’ll always be honest, and I might be too much of a sharer but I’d rather be that than the opposite way.
“I want the players to know that I’m emotional and that I’m vulnerable at stages and I am struggling because the fact of the matter is, we all do it.
“One thing I’ve learnt, and I’ve learnt a lot of great lessons from a lot of great people, Trent being one of those and Dustin and these type of people, is that you’ve got to have conversations where you do feel uncomfortable, and you do share things that are going to put you a little bit not at ease, but that’s helped people and clubs and organisations.”
hardwick-on-why-he-left-tigers-feeling-reinvigorated-and-the-sun-with-potential-to-be-special
‘Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole’
Hardwick smiles as soon as Bailey Humphrey’s name is mentioned. He knows he is poised to say something inflammatory and wonders if he should check himself. He goes ahead anyway.
“I think [Humphrey’s] got the potential to be quite special,” Hardwick said, selecting his adjective carefully.
“He is a potential matchwinner. He’s a doer, if that makes sense, and the more instruction you give him the worse player he is, so he just plays.
“I’ve told this to Bailey, ‘Wherever you reckon you are needed, you go’. I look at him and I think you know what, you know better than me. He’s one of those players. He just sees the game really well. He’s got a good understanding ... he needs to put himself where he is needed.
“That’s what good players do. Let’s not fit a square peg in a round hole, on the day if you think you can impact the game there then go there.”
That takes a certain type of maturity and confidence at his young age, to walk into the centre square and kick out a player such as Touk Miller. There are precious few players like that. Martin is one, Christian Petracca, Toby Greene, Patrick Dangerfield and Jordan De Goey are others. Humphrey isn’t as good as any of them yet, but he plays as they do and has the licence they do.
The master asks the apprentice for help
Despite his experience, so much felt new at Gold Coast that Hardwick found himself reaching out to his former assistant Kingsley for advice.
“I’ve coached for a long time, but I was ringing ‘Kingy’ up for advice saying, ‘What do you do here? What’s different?’
Loading
“He’s saying, ‘Yeah, you gotta keep doing this’. It’s funny. He’s been coaching for 12 months and I’m asking him questions.
“But they [Kingsley and McRae] are good coaches. I hope there’s more of it, the long apprenticeships. I sort of laugh at myself when I first got into the game and I got a job within four or five years. It’s embarrassing, really, when you think of the lack of apprenticeship at the time and the problem is – it’s a little bit like kids today and my kids are the same – everyone’s in a rush to get to it but as soon as you’re in a senior coaching job, you’re close to getting the sack.”
No more gimmicks
Loading
Hardwick is clear that the Suns “became a footy club” under former coach Stuart Dew and his team, as well as Cameron, Campbell and CEO Mark Evans.
“The players stopped leaving, which is so important, you know, and we hopefully are going to benefit from that in the not too distant future.
“What our next challenge is, we start, you know, no more gimmicks. Let’s just win some f---ing games. That’s always going to take us where we need to go. And that’s what it’s going to start, bringing crowds and people and players and staff to our footy club, no question. We’ve got to get the job done.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
Hardwick on why he left Tigers, feeling reinvigorated and the Sun with potential to be ‘special’
After more than a decade at Richmond, Damien Hardwick has begun a new chapter at Gold Coast. He talks to Michael Gleeson about being reinvigorated by his new club, the young Sun with a licence to do a “Dusty” and why he doesn’t regret being open about his family life to build connections.
I'm looking forward to this game although the whole round zero concept is bs. It would have been a good R2. More than half the clubs not even pulling on boots in the first week is a *smile* stupid idea imo.
But the problem for McPherson is that he is no where near the class of Lambert.
Running is just a small slice of what Lambert and Edwards brought to us during 2017-2020
He might’ve made a mistake little Diimma
He might have 80% of a wooden spoon team
He might have 80% of a wooden spoon team
Hilarious. Predicting he’ll do well out of the deal but this will end in tears for GC and the AFL.
History won't do Hardwick any favours.
No sporting organisation has ever succeeded located on GC.
He has the AFL in bed now, but they can't kick goals.
As long as it doesn't end in tears for us in a couple of weeks' time.
You just know it will craigy boy…it’s richmondy. F*ck I hate the Gold Coast.
