Damien Hardwick quits Richmond: Mark Robinson on the man who might be the Tigers’ greatest ever coach

Following a 113 point loss in the final game of 2016, Damien Hardwick’s trip to the US flipped the script. Mark Robinson assesses his legacy and how he changed the game.

Damien Hardwick is Richmond’s longest serving coach, but he could also be Richmond’s greatest ever coach.

There’s a mystique about Tom Hafey, all historical and powerful figures have got it.

And Hardwick, until the bombshell on Tuesday night, was the modern day phenom, watched on TV every week and listened to with every press conference.

His mystique will evolve with time.

There’s a shock today, and in 30 years’ time he will be revered even more fondly than he is right now by the Tiger army, the person who turned around a struggling football club.

He was helped of course by president Peggy O’Neal and chief executive Brendon Gale and an ol’ Hafey man himself in Neil Balme.

They were the Tigers quadrella.

But history records the deeds of coaches more than the administrators.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick talks with Brendon Gale, Peggy O'Neal and Adam Kingsley in 2020. Picture: Scott Barbour

Hardwick won three premierships and lost the unlosable in 2018, when after a stunning home and away season, they stumbled in the preliminary final against Collingwood.

The turning point for Hardwick came in the off-season of 2016.

He visited the United States, most likely Harvard University, and returned with a different and refreshed coaching philosophy.

Data and mechanisms were swapped for emotion and relationships, his secret ingredient being the HHH manual of coaching.

It was Heroes, Hardship and Highlights.

He tapped into the minds of his players, but not as much in the analytics of football.

No, Hardwick invited his players to be vulnerable, to tell stories about their lives, their heroes, their battles, their fears and the greatness they were fortunate enough to be bestowed with.

It could only work if Hardwick, perceived by the public to be an ornery figure, made himself vulnerable to be also vulnerable to his group.

There was a weekly ritual where a player, a coach or staff member stood in front of the group and told their stories, such as Brandon Ellis wanting to buy his mum a house when he’d made enough money out of football, or Jack Riewoldt talking about why his cousin Nick was his hero.

Hardwick went first and then the captain Trent Cotchin and, as the weeks were ticked off, a footy team became an emotional juggernaut.

It was about this time “connection’’ was introduced to the footy vocab.

The Tigers needed it.

ANALYSIS: WHAT IT MEANS FOR COACHING MERRY-GO-ROUND

Hardwick and Brandon Ellis. Picture: Scott Barbour

Amid a raft of injuries, the Tigers lost the final game of 2016 to Sydney by 113 points.

Thirteen months later, the underdog Tigers bowled over Adelaide to win the premiership, ending a drought which had draped over the club as if it was a blanket of failure.

The Tigers had previously lost three consecutive elimination finals – 2013, 2014, 2015.

With them came unbearable ridicule, such as when Cotchin won the toss and kicked against the wind in the first quarter at Adelaide Oval.

Or when Essendon was kicked out of the finals because of the drugs saga and was replaced by Carlton, and Chris Judd tore them apart in the second half.

Remember?

The Tigers were beaten by a team that didn’t even make finals.

Hardwick changed the storytelling.

And not only did he change the footy club, he changed the game.

The Bulldogs handballed their way to the 2016 premiership and the Tigers surged to their three flags, starting in 2017.

Hardwick adjusted along the way. He had his own nursery rhyme book called Jack and the Smalls.

It centred around Jack Riewoldt as the lone key forward and the mosquito fleet below him, which elevated what we now call forward-50 pressure.

It was later called chaos football: Get it, run, surge in numbers and kick it and fight like hell to win it wherever the ball landed.

He had Dusty Martin of course and great players make great coaches. But great coaches also make great players.

Hardwick will be forever grateful to have the powerhouse No. 4 in his team, but so, too, will Dusty be grateful to have Hardwick as his coach.

He cuddled, encouraged and protected Dusty in the early years.

He devised a game-style to extract every ounce of Martin’s brilliance and reaped the rewards.

Hafey won four flags at Richmond – ‘67, 69, 73, 74 – and Hardwick won three – 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Hafey, Jack Dyer, Kevin Bartlett are the most revered figures at Tigerland and Hardwick, comfortably now sits among that storied group.

In the end, he got tired, worn down by the game. But my God he leaves an icon of the yellow and black.

Originally published as Damien Hardwick quits Richmond: Mark Robinson on the man who might be the Tigers’ greatest ever coach