Victorian Government responds as Richmond coach Damien Hardwick calls out Dan Andrews

AFL coach Damien Hardwick has heaped pressure on Victorian Premier Dan Andrews with an attack from out of the blue.

Desperate Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has heaped pressure on Dan Andrews to remove close-contact restrictions.

The premiership-winning mentor on Sunday took aim at the recommendation from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee not to ease isolation rules for close contacts.

There are new calls for the Victorian government to change its isolation rules for household contacts over fears supermarket shelves and restaurants could be left empty over the Easter holidays.

Currently, anyone who is deemed a close contact of a confirmed case of coronavirus is required to undergo seven days of isolation.

Hardwick on Sunday became a powerful voice in the argument when he called on Andrews to follow through with the national cabinet’s agreement last month for the isolation period to be scrapped for most Covid-19 close contacts.

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The restrictions resulted in Tigers talent Sydney Stack being removed from the Tigers’ VFL game this weekend against Sandringham.

Stack was living with a person who had recently tested positive for Covid.

Hardwick said in his post match press conference: “If we could just get rid of the close contact rule Dan, that would be terrific.

“It would make everyone’s life a hell of a lot easier”.

Damien Hardwick speaks after losing to the Saints.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Photo: Ian Currie.

Victorian Minister for Innovation and Medical Research, Jaala Pulford, responded to Hardwick on Monday.

“Mr Hardwick is entitled to his view. Everyone’s entitled to their view, it’s been a challenging and frustrating couple of years but we’ll keep listening to the health experts,” she said.

Hardwick looked a desperate coach after the 33-point loss to the Saints.

Forward Max King had another huge performance where he finished with four goals.

Hardwick put some pressure on his players not to play dumb footy after a series of clumsy free kicks ultimately proved fatal.

The Tigers lost the free kick count 19-28.

“It’s disappointing and (especially) the cheapness of some of the free kicks,” Hardwick said.

“Just discipline and just too high and the stoppage free kicks hurt us once again.

“We’ve got to get better. We’ve spoken about that all year, about trying to eradicate that from our game, but it creeps in at critical stages and it’s really, really costly.

“Like you can’t defend from a free kick, you can’t put pressure on, they get a free disposal. So we’ve got to get better on that front.”

Originally published as Victorian Government responds as Richmond coach Damien Hardwick calls out Dan Andrews