Alice Coster: Damien Hardwick’s exit from Richmond ‘downright un-Australian’
I know there are other factors at play — but coaches quitting after just 10 rounds just feels downright un-Australian.
Opinion
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Quitters. Trying to explain to the 10-year-old, who has grown up with Damien Hardwick coaching his team to three premierships, that he quit after a heartbreaking one-point loss, took some work.
Why?
That was the first question from the breakfast table with sleepy eyes and a side look of shock, horror and sadness.
Burnout, pressure, frustration and fatigue was solemnly accepted with a nod of the head.
And then.
“Is it because they lost?”
Hmmm.
What to say?
Just that weekend, the kid’s footy coach had been jollying along the under-10s team, enthusiastically pumping home that it wasn’t about the score and it definitely wasn’t about winning.
None of all that matters the coach told the browbeaten lot looking down at their footy boots, only being with your team and trying your best.
Two days later Hardwick was at Punt Rd announcing he was quitting, saying among other things “as you’ve had more success the losses become harder.”
Sure, there are other factors at play. Rebuilding, 13 years in the job, blah blah, blardy blah.
But as someone who doesn’t give two hoots about the specifics of the game and is just here for the emotion, the vibe and Mabo of it all, coaches quitting after just 10 rounds just feels downright un-Australian.
The clincher was saying another reason could have been the fact that other coaching opportunities could potentially open up.
That Hardwick could be sniffing for greener and sunnier pastures in the Sunshine State was met with disgust over Vegemite toast.
“What, might he might go to the Gold Coast Suns” was spat out furiously, “That’s not okay”.
The constant AFL coaching shuffle seems ludicrous. How does someone feel burnt out from one team only to swap to another?
None of it makes sense to me, let alone an AFL-loving, die-hard 10-year-old.
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