Richmond coach Damien Hardwick should be called a coaching genius, Mark Robinson writes
Alastair Clarkson is widely considered a footy genius for changing footy but it’s about time Richmond coach Damien Hardwick received the same accolade, Mark Robinson writes.
Mark Robinson
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It is always chronicled that Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson is a genius.
The best coach in the AFL. It is said he changed the game and continually bamboozled the opposition coach’s box.
He’s acclaimed as a future Hall of Famer, maybe a Legend.
So, we ask the question: Why isn’t Damien Hardwick lauded with similar extravagant praise?
As we embark on the 2021 season, Hardwick might be the most uncelebrated coaching great the game has seen.
The Tigers mentor has his sights on a fourth premiership.
If accomplished, he would join the likes of Ron Barassi, Kevin Sheedy, Allan Jeans, Leigh Matthews, Tom Hafey, David Parkin and Clarkson, as four-timers.
That bunch is considered football royalty, icons of their eras.
Hardwick’s genius — in the box and in moulding the psyche of his playing group — is vastly undersold.
He’s led his team into seven of the past eight finals series.
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He changed the game style in 2017 and, five seasons later, opposition clubs are still trying to curb the Tigers’ dominance.
Achieving greatness as a team is difficult enough, maintaining it is part of the genius.
Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale won’t be drawn on comparisons when it comes to Hardwick.
“You’re better placed to make that judgment,’’ he said.
“We clearly rate him very highly in terms of where he sits.”
He identifies two key facets of Hardwick’s coaching style.
“He’s a very, very good coach in terms of a technical understanding of the game, and selling the game to the players, knowing what the game should look like, knowing how and when to intervene,” Gale said.
“And he’s extremely selfless. There’s a real sense of humility and it’s a really potent blend.
“If you’re a really good technical coach and really results-driven, but at the same time, there’s a humility and selflessness, what that does is it enables the program, it enables the system and the game plan.
“If the coach leads that way, it enables everyone. He’s never one to cultivate his standing.”
Hardwick wants to be the coach and nothing else.
He wouldn’t do any media if it were his choice.
He’s not a song and dance man who “plays the game”, as Gale describes it.
It is why Hardwick has never rally endeared himself to the football public.
Tigers fans now respect him, but that wasn’t the case through the “elimination years” of 2013-15 nor the shambolic 2016 season.
There’s no grandstanding from Hardwick.
Sometimes, he appears mildly flustered and frustrated. Sometimes, words come out wrong.
He gets gnarly, picks fights, as he did last year, and is ferociously defensive.
Absolutely polished he is not.
“He’s at his worst in the media,” Gale said.
“I don’t care one little bit because he’s absolutely at his best in the coach’s box, during the week, on game day, at half-time, quarter-time. That’s where is most comfortable and people don’t get to see that.’’
THE EINSTEIN FACTOR
What is genius in a football sense?
Is it anything else than winning premierships?
It has to be.
It is said football is about the journey and the subtle and not-so subtle pivots made along the way.
It takes a bold man to pause and rethink and redirect and then pick up a footy team to ride the pivot.
In Hardwick’s case, he identified what he had as a team and made it a weapon.
And that’s what Hardwick did. That was his genius.
Through those “elimination years”, and as one followed the other, Hardwick and the Tigers were the butt of jokes. They were seen as immense failures.
But some thought differently – that he took an average team to three finals series said more about his coaching ability than it didn’t.
That it was the first time Richmond had played in successive finals series since 1975 was seen as a positive internally and not negative.
Season 2016 was his defining season.
Hardwick visited Harvard in the off season and returned a task and process coach — and a people’s coach.
“Kevin Sheedy used to call him the bank teller when he played at Essendon,’’ Gale said.
“He was then. Then he became a trained accountant. He is, or was, numerically balanced.
“Why did we in lose? There was a huge reliance on data and stats to explain the answer.
“In 2016, the worse it got the harder he spun the wheels. He internalised. He took himself away from the group somewhat, from the players. They wanted Dimma, like all players they want their coaches to be accessible.’’
There is a huge misnomer about Hardwick’s position at Richmond at the end of 2016.
The club had signed Hardwick to a contract extension at the end of 2015 and at the end of 2016, when the club undertook a review of the football department, it was perpetuated by media types the club considered sacking him.
It was utter garbage.
The only people wanting to sack Hardwick, and Gale and president Peggy O’Neal was that shambolic alternative group which set about challenging the board. It was a humiliating failure.
“No, we never thought about sacking him,” Gale said.
“The media presents that as if Gale and O’Neal were some heroic sports management duo. It wasn’t heroic because it was never discussed.
“Mate, it’s not word of a lie. We had a review, but we weren’t looking at him.”
The review about was changing leadership education and culture.
“Instead of wanting a player to be somebody, they endeavoured to allow that player to be themselves,” Gale said.
“There were people coming into the footy club wearing masks and trying to be something they’re not.
“We tried to encourage an environment where guys could be themselves and part of that was Dimma went to a course at Harvard about authentic leadership.
“The course helps to look within. Who am I? It was a process of self discovery.
“When the tide fully goes out, it reveals the pebbles.
“What it highlighted was Dimma had to get back to understanding who he was. And it went like a domino through the whole group.’’
“And, of course, we changed completely the way we played football inside three months.’’
Culture is one important aspect at a footy club as a measurement, but performance on the field is the ultimate measurement.
Certainly, creating a new game plan is not genius. It is to make it work. And clearly it has when you’ve three flags in four years.
HE HAD YOUR BACK
The Hawks under Clarkson had spatial defence and a kicking game which underpinned Clarkson’s genius.
Leading up to 2017 season, the Tigers weren’t too dissimilar to the Hawks. But execution, skill and ability let them down.
Hardwick’s new plan — get the ball forward, use pace, use skill and forward-half pressure — changed how the game could be played.
“The ability for Damien and his coaching group, but clearly Damien under pressure to stop, reflect, to renew to reset and completely change the game plan and teach that in the pre-season, and to get buy in, was huge,’’ Gale said.
It was revealed that at three-quarter time of last year’s Grand Final, Hardwick told the players he loved them.
They love him back. If you get the chance, watch back Dustin Martin sprinting 30m to hug Hardwick after the final siren. Look at Hardwick’s face and feel Martin’s exuberance.
Every premiership coach/team has its exclusive bond. At the Tigers, the players feel Hardwick is a teammate as much as he is a coach.
Asked why he loved playing with Hardwick at Essendon, former Bomber Dean Solomon said: “As a teammate he always had your back.”
That’s how the Richmond players feel.
If Hardwick wins the title this year, the achievement would rank him beside Hafey, the Godfather of coaching at Tigerland.
Older folk might never agree, but Hardwick’s flags have been won in a far more difficult environment.
Hafey’s four — 1967, 1969, 1973-4 — were won in a 12-team competition and when only six teams could win the flag.
Hardwick devised a game style in an 18-team competition, and upwards of 300 coaches have tried to dissect and deconstruct this system — and failed.
There’s genius right there. The Tigers know that. It’s why giving him a three-year contract extension, which will be announced soon enough, was as easy as picking apples.
WHAT DID YOU LOVE ABOUT COACHING WITH HIM?
Justin Leppitsch: “Damien was always the smartest coach tactically I’d been involved with in my time in footy. What took him to the next level when I got back to Richmond in 2016 was his improvement in player management skills. Leigh Matthews will always be the best in this area, but Damien isn’t far behind. It was also timely that group from 2010 was ready to win and matured into great leaders.”
WHAT DID YOU LOVE ABOUT PLAYING WITH HIM?
Dean Solomon: “The man was uncompromising. Pound for pound he was as good as there was one v one. He simply hated to be beaten. As a teammate he always had your back. He demanded elite defensive discipline, but would always put an arm around you in support.’’
WHAT DID YOU LOVE ABOUT COACHING HIM?
Mark Williams: “I recruited him because he was ruthless and tough. He took no prisoners and his attitude had a ripple effect on the group. Also he had nice legs — have you seen his calves?’’
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