Mick Malthouse rates Damien Hardwick his coach of the year
DAMIEN Hardwick is coach of the year but he’s about to meet the coach of the decade. And Alastair Clarkson knows exactly the way Richmond wants Thursday night’s final to be played, writes Mick Malthouse.
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THE final eight coaches will find it hard to keep still this weekend.
Without a game to physically occupy them they will be scrutinising, analysing, planning and preparing for next weekend’s opponent.
Each week of the finals becomes the most important week for their team.
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We know who is favourite. Top spot has been Richmond’s for 15 rounds this year, including each of the past 11 weeks.
Damien Hardwick has hardly changed, if at all, the Tigers’ game plan of last year, and astonishingly they head into this finals series with almost the same team, too. That is very rare in football.
Don’t forget where Richmond came from last year to win the premiership. To hold up again, under a fierce spotlight, is a marvellous effort. To set a winning-streak record at the MCG of 21 matches is extraordinary. For that, I regard Hardwick as the coach of the year.
The success of last year hasn’t gone to his head. He is measured and level-headed, certainly wiser, and still the likeable rascal who is loved by his players.
Every team is looking closely to find a chink in Richmond’s armour. As much as Shaun Grigg has done a wonderful job as second ruckman, the Tigers’ weakness in this area remains.
Of the three teams who came into the final eight this season — Hawthorn, Collingwood and Melbourne — Hawthorn is the most experienced, as is its coach.
When Hawthorn is in control of the game, Alastair Clarkson is equally as level and measured, but when things aren’t going to plan his emotions can spill over. It is a natural reaction.
A trip to the interchange bench is as much to let his players know who is in control, as it is for him to step out of the coaches’ box to calm and restore his spirit.
Last week against Sydney it was painfully obvious that the Swans were all over Hawthorn because of their extra man in the back half. Simply, the Hawks couldn’t get through into a good scoring position and managed just three goals to halftime.
But at halftime Clarkson traded his own loose player for a one-on-one both forward and back of the ball, thereby denying Sydney an intercept player.
This helped get Hawthorn back in the game and put the Franklin-less Swans at the mercy of their opponents.
I was intrigued that John Longmire didn’t respond by swinging another plus-one or loose player behind the ball to test the Hawks again. But it didn’t happen and the points went to Clarkson and Hawthorn.
Finals are true tests and I have a feeling that Clarkson, with his experience and an experienced team, will enjoy testing Richmond on many fronts — particularly through tactics. There is no doubt he will try to slow the game down to make the Tigers come to Hawthorn, because what he won’t want is a free-for-all loose ball environment which is where Richmond excels.
Adam Simpson, to me, was only just pipped as coach of the year by Hardwick. The Eagles were expected to slide this season. Instead they’ve blooded several young players and adjusted to a new home ground. They lost Nic Naitanui again to injury, and had last year’s Coleman medallist Josh Kennedy in and out of the side, and still excelled.
Simpson has a calming influence on his team. No job appears too big, no loss too great. He enjoys a win no less than his players, but he is able to refocus very quickly.
He has unearthed some ripping young talent this season — Liam Ryan, Liam Duggan, Daniel Venables, Tom Cole and Willie Rioli, and in the absence of Kennedy, Jake Waterman has been excellent.
The Eagles are expertly led on the field by quiet achiever, Shannon Hurn.
With the growth of Scott Lycett, Jack Darling, Brad Sheppard, Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo and Chris Masten, West Coast has a complete team.
Simpson is defensively minded and defence wins finals. Importantly, the Eagles know how to kick goals, too, having averaged 91.5 points per game. But they also know their finals opponent has a wonderfully credentialed and multi-pronged forward line that must be nullified.
Nathan Buckley has had to deal with many dramas in his coaching career, but he seems to be lapping up the contests of this year.
Perhaps his two most important recruits this season have been in the coaches’ box. Justin Longmuir (former West Coast assistant and Fremantle player) has his fingerprints all over the Magpies’ backline. Likewise, the dynamics of the midfield have been positioned and nurtured by one of the great midfielders of our time, former Cat Garry Hocking.
Collingwood’s talls have been hit hard by injury, but necessity is the mother of invention and the Pies have gone in with a medium-to-small forward line (other than Mason Cox) and they have all been superstars.
Jaidyn Stephenson (34 goals) is the rookie of the year; Jordan De Goey (36) the improver of the year; Josh Thomas (35) the invisible man of the year. And Will Hoskin-Elliott (39) is the cream on top. They are all multiple goalkickers and pose the biggest dilemma for opposition backlines.
Buckley’s use of Brodie Grundy and Cox has made them the most lethal ruck combination in the league and they give Collingwood’s mids an armchair ride.
Melbourne has tightened up its game and is reaping the rewards.
From Rounds 6-11 the Demons won six games straight and went into the Queen’s Birthday clash playing like millionaires only to be smashed by a blue-collar worker, Collingwood. It knocked the confidence out of them, along with their run and game style. Melbourne lost its next two games.
But since then the Demons have only lost twice. They have been direct, hard at it, played with less fanfare and have been prepared to get their knuckles dirty.
Finally, Simon Goodwin is getting what he has been demanding all year — solid football.
Melbourne’s structure is not about one player kicking all the goals. Clayton Oliver is a standout and will no doubt cop a tag this finals series. But his ability to go forward and kick goals can break those tags.
Goodwin is not foreign to finals football as a player, but he is as a coach, and of his players only Jordan Lewis has extensive finals experience. It will only be a problem though if the team doesn’t come to grips quickly with the fact that finals football is basically one-on-one, and brutal.
Goodwin will need to settle the nerves of his team at the appropriate time and then unleash its spirit.
The Demons’ outside run is terrific but it has to be balanced with the contested ball. They are a good contested team, though they will need to learn quickly to stop any opposition transition from defence to attack.
This simply comes down to work ethic and want. Individuals in a great football team do not leave it up to others to get the job done.
Jesse Hogan (47 goals this season) will be missed to a degree, but two former Essendon players — Jake Melksham, forward, and Michael Hibberd, off the backline, have changed the team’s dynamics.
With the expected return of Jack Viney, Melbourne will have a much harder look about it.
Under Goodwin’s tutelage the Demons have matured very quickly.
It is a shame in a way that two fine teams are going head-to-head in a knockout final because both Melbourne and Geelong, at their best, are great entertainers.
In many respects it is experience versus inexperience. It may well boil down to a Patrick Dangerfield-led midfield versus an Oliver-led midfield, with the warriors — Joel Selwood and Nathan Jones — going head-to-head.
Geelong’s backline is very sound and its midfield runs deep. Remarkably, Melbourne has succumbed to Geelong twice this year with the last kick of the game, but for all intents and purposes the Demons have played the better football.
With the return of Gary Ablett many assumed Geelong would be playing off for a double chance, but they have been patchy.
Chris Scott’s game structure and sense is excellent, so this will be a fascinating encounter. He doesn’t have the best finals record with the Cats (six wins, eight losses, one premiership), but he has experience on his side and he can use that to unsettle Melbourne.
Longmire’s Sydney and Leon Cameron’s GWS Giants are poles apart in game structure. Sydney plays a brutal one-on-one game and with Lance Franklin to return, taking on the Swans at the SCG will be an enormous hurdle for the injury-ravaged Giants.
Sydney will try to bind GWS up and cut every bit of breathing space it has until there is no room to move on a ground that is shorter and wider than it is used to. Cameron will need to call on all of his technical experience and the talent of his team to combat it.
It is very interesting that Sydney has had more wins against its fellow finalists this year than any other club. Richmond is a close second with seven wins. West Coast managed six, Hawthorn and Geelong five each. GWS had three and Melbourne just two. While Collingwood won only the one against the Demons.
Finals are a different ball game to the home-and-away season, but the stats remain. Things are about to get very exciting.
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Originally published as Mick Malthouse rates Damien Hardwick his coach of the year