Richmond coach Damien Hardwick won’t be hitting panic button

Trent Cotchin is among the Richmond stars who will miss Sunday’s clash against Sydney in Brisbane.

Richmond players work out at Broadbeach Football Club on Friday before their game against Sydney at the Gabba in Brisbane on Sunday. Picture: Michael Klein

3 min read

8:17PMJuly 10, 2020

Damien Hardwick presented more as a man enjoying a break on the Gold Coast than a coach trying to find solutions to a series of complex issues on Friday.

As the Tigers prepare for the first game of a road trip of indeterminable length against Sydney at the Gabba on Sunday, the Richmond coach appeared relaxed, despite dealing with multiple challenges.

The immediate task is the clash against the Swans, with the Tigers forced to make five changes from the side that defeated Melbourne last Sunday.

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The quality of the personnel missing would be enough to send a hirsute coach bald.

Captain Trent Cotchin is a Brownlow Medallist. Dion Prestia is the reigning best and fairest. Bachar Houli carries the highest player rating of any Tigers player this season.

Shane Edwards is an All Australian who has finished in the top five of the Tigers’ club champion award counts for the past two seasons. And Toby Nankervis is a dual-premiership ruckman.

All five played in the 2017 and 2019 premiership sides for the Tigers. They share 945 games and 57 seasons of AFL experience. It is a wealth of talent absent.

Beyond that game, the Tigers are pondering whether to call for back-up after travelling with a smaller squad than many of their rivals on the advice of the AFL.

There is also the issue of Richmond’s stuttering premiership defence, with the 11th-placed club yet to find anything like their best form in 2020 after five rounds.

But Hardwick had some reason to smile as he assessed his team’s predicament when star spearhead Tom Lynch trained strongly after recent surgery on a broken hand.

The former Gold Coast captain, who kicked two late goals despite the injury to seal victory against the Demons, is expected to play Sydney, barring any further incident.

“He’s an incredibly brave and tough character,” Hardwick said.

“He did the vast majority (of training), actually, which surprised us and he’s exceeded expectations. He’s gone from a doubtful to a probable, which is a great result for us.”

Hardwick’s sunny disposition in the Sunshine State stems in part from recent history which demonstrates Richmond is more than capable of overcoming difficulties.

The Tigers were challenged in the first half of last season when several stars were injured and were sitting in eight position with seven wins from 13 matches.

They did not lose another match until being trounced by Hawthorn on June 18 this year.

Hardwick believes the Tigers can launch an assault on the eight regardless of the personnel he has at his disposal.

Several young Tigers blossomed when forced to take on additional responsibility in the early stages of 2019 in the absence of stars including Cotchin, Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt.

Hardwick is hoping the current issues will have a similar impact on the players called upon in coming weeks in Queensland.

Marlion Pickett, who has struggled to find his best form since the season suspension, returns alongside ruckman Ivan Soldo, Jack Graham and Shai Bolton.

Those inclusions indicate the depth at Tigerland.

Derek Eggmolesse-Smith will play his third game for Richmond after demonstrating promise in recent scratch matches.

“To a degree we are very much a process-oriented football club. We have strong belief in that system and we want to play our way,” Hardwick said.

He is among those to call for an increase in the interchange bench, particularly if the league decides to condense the fixture.

The AFL is considering playing games with increased regularity in order to complete as much of the season as possible in case COVID-19 forces another interruption to the season.

With Richmond unable to arrange a scratch match this weekend for those who miss selection, he believes this would enable clubs to blood younger players.