Responding to Kane Cornes feud, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick jokes about his wife (again)

DAMIEN Hardwick today took the heat out of his stoush with Kane Cornes by joking about his wife. And it’s not the first time Mrs Hardwick has come to the Richmond coach’s rescue.

Damien Hardwick talks to the media.

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says he has no issue with Kane Cornes after giving his former premiership teammate a public spray last weekend.

Quizzed about a tweet from Cornes during his post-match press conference, Hardwick said the former tagger was paid “to write s — t comments” in his new media roles.

Today he laughed off the exchange, making a joking reference to his wife Danielle.

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“It might not seem this way but I do have a lot of love for Kane, we obviously played in a premiership together and it’s like Mrs Hardwick, we have our little blues every now and then but we certainly make up. I prefer making up with Mrs Hardwick more so than Kane Cornes, but we move on pretty quickly,” he said.

Damien Hardwick faces the media. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Damien Hardwick with his wife Danielle and children Ben, Imogen and Isabelle.

“It was (a pretty animated discussion) but Kane has got a job to do and so have I, the fact of the matter is if you speak about my family in that way, you know he’ll cop a whack accordingly.

“I also understand that he’s got a job to do and I’d never hold that against him, he’s a stand-up guy, we’ve got a lot of history together, played in a lot of games together so it’s all good from our end.

It isn’t the first time Hardwick has used his wife to take the heat out of a difficult topic.

Back in 2013 the Richmond coach invoked images of his home life while talking about his team’s inability to carry over strong track form to games.

“Sometimes I like to make love to my wife, I don’t perform at a high standard,” he said, laughing.

Two years later, he said he was happy with the Tigers’ defensive efforts but concerned they were not kicking enough goals.

“We always want a little bit more — Mrs Hardwick says the same thing,” Hardwick said.

And last year his wife was in the news again, this time unintentionally after Nathan Buckley asked AFL coaches association chief Mark Brayshaw for his Richmond counterpart’s phone number.

Buckley tried to reach out to another under-the-pump coach but was surprised to discover Brayshaw had given him Mrs Hardwick’s number by mistake.

“Why Mark Brayshaw has got my wife’s number, I’m not too sure,” Hardwick laughed.