Steve Price: Why Daniel Andrews should take a lesson from Damien Hardwick

Pity Daniel Andrews doesn’t have the same regard for Victorians as Damien Hardwick. He must realise his tank has been running on empty for too long and his time is surely up.

Daniel Andrews should do us all a favour and do the same thing and resign today. Picture: David Geraghty

It was fitting legendary Richmond coach Damien Hardwick chose budget day in Victoria to blow up his glittering coaching career.

Dimma said the tank was empty and that he had no more to give, and he owed it to Richmond players, staff and us 90,000 plus members, to be honest with us.

Pity the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews doesn’t have the same regard for Victorians.

Pity it wasn’t him resigning with the class and dignity of Hardwick.

Pity Dan doesn’t realise his tank has been running on empty for a long time. His time surely is up.

Damien did the right thing by Richmond people. He dragged us from perennial losers to three-time grand final winners.

Pity Premier Daniel Andrews hasn’t resigned with the same class as Damien Hardwick. Picture: David Geraghty

He gave the Tiger Army four memorable years starting in 2017 and ending during Covid in a 2020 victory over old enemy Geelong at the Gabba.

As a proud 29-year uninterrupted gold reserve seat member of the Tiger Army I thank Hardwick and his team for getting me through Covid. Before that the memory of 2017 and that thrashing of the Adelaide Crows is still with me.

Emotionally tearing up as the team in its away jumper ran laps of honour at the MCG with the premiership cup for the first flag in 37 years it was one of the great days of my life.

Walking down Swan St a few hours later there were scenes unlikely to ever be repeated. Barber shops had their chairs on the footpath offering Dusty Martin haircuts.

Back at the MCG Jack Riewoldt jumped on stage with the band, The Killers, to belt out their hit Mr Brightside.

The players later gathered around the centre circle with the cup in the middle.

It was a celebration of all the magical things it was to be a football supporter following an MCG based team and 2017 will forever be possibly my most favourite year ever in Melbourne.

Dimma said his tank was empty and he had no more to give. Picture: Getty Images

Sadly, by the time of that third victory played in the middle of Covid in 2020 on foreign turf in Brisbane, everything had changed, not just for Richmond or football, but for all Victorians.

We had become the longest Covid locked-down jurisdiction in the world. Melbourne was forced into a war-like night-time curfew, exercise was limited to two people only and you were legally trapped in a five-kilometre-wide quarantine zone.

Victoria’s border was slammed shut, people not even allowed to return home from interstate. Drinking alcohol through a straw from a paper cup in public was banned and so was sport like golf and police kicked me out of a carpark watching surfers in the water.

How quickly we forget.

Three hours after Damien Hardwick walked away with his head held high and his reputation enhanced, another team that has won the big dance three times – Dan Andrews’ ALP government – handed down Budget 2023.

Sadly, for Victoria and Victorians the political coach of that team chose to stay on as Premier even though it’s clear, like Damien, his tank is empty.

Just as Covid sucked the life out of AFL clubs it has sucked the life out of this government. Unlike Hardwick who until this week turned up week in week out and took the great with the not-so-great Dan Andrews looks to have lost interest.

TV images showed the Premier sitting next to Treasurer Tim Pallas on Tuesday, seemingly just turning up because it was seen to be the right thing to do.

Damien Hardwick walked away with his head held high. Picture: Michael Klein

Slumped in his chair flipping the budget papers through his fingers you’d swear he was thinking of that next round of golf.

Sources close to the Premier have been telling anyone who wants to listen that Dan has lost interest, chooses his appearances in question time sparingly and seems bored.

Hardwick could have done the same thing given the runs he has on the board but he’s clearly a team player and someone who had the integrity to walk away once the fire was no longer there.

Daniel Andrews should do us all a favour and do the same thing and resign today.

The three-time election winning Premier has nothing else to prove. Clearly Andrews is a master politician and a factional war lord and no team player.

Victorian Labor is Andrews Labor. He will select his successor – Jacinta Allan has already been anointed – and she (Jacinta) will be handed the poisoned chalice.

Some advice Jacinta, walk away and don’t let yourself become the next Joan Kirner – learn from history.

Slumped in his chair flipping the budget papers through his fingers you’d swear he was thinking of that next round of golf. Picture: Ian Currie

Damien had 18 months to run on his contract. Andrews if he were to stay – as he has promised – will be with us until November 2026.

That’s over three and a half years from now and Victoria simply cannot afford to have that happen.

Given the hopeless state of a dysfunctional Liberal-National Opposition it’s up to the Premier’s team to tap the coach on the shoulder.

Victorians can’t afford to have destructive Dan in charge for the rest of this term.

Please Premier take a leaf out of Damien’s book and walk away. Hardwick has been tipped to reignite his coaching career on the Gold Coast and I suspect there will be a lot of Victorians living there before he arrives.

In the 1990s we were known as the “Rust Bucket State”.

Thirty-three years later forget the rust we are just the busted State.