AFL Tigers Suns: How Richmond and Gold Coast have changed since Damien Hardwick swapped clubs

In the 19 months since ex-Richmond coach Damien Hardwick joined Gold Coast, the Suns and Tigers have turned over almost 40 per cent of their playing lists. Was he right to jump ship?

On May 22, 2023, Damien Hardwick resigned as head coach of the Richmond Football Club.

After 14 years, 307 games and three premierships, the club’s most successful coach since Tom Hafey told the top brass he had nothing more to give.

“I’ve pushed every button I can, I’ve tried to cook the sausages 1000 ways and I couldn’t find 1001,” Hardwick told reporters on that fateful Tuesday two years ago.

Three months later, in the members bar at People First Stadium, he was unveiled as Gold Coast’s fourth full-time senior coach.

It was a watershed moment for club, coach and the competition. One of the best mentors in the AFL had swapped piloting a powerhouse club for the league’s perennial underperformer.

Damien Hardwick during the press conference announcing he will resign as Richmond’s senior coach. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

That day, Hardwick declared “80 per cent” of Gold Coast’s maiden premiership list was already at the club. It was a bold statement of belief – and intent – about what the next six years could bring.

On Saturday night, when the Suns travel to Marvel Stadium to tackle the Tigers, his past and present will collide again.

Twice last season Hardwick’s Suns defeated the Tigers. But the third meeting has a much different feel to it.

A Suns victory would push them to 5-0 for the first time in club history. In the past 25 years only one team – Collingwood in 2000 – failed to play finals from that position. For Richmond meanwhile, September footy feels like a far-flung reality.

When Hardwick pulled the pin on his time at Punt Rd, he said he could no longer cook the sausages. But did he burn them on the way out? And was his decision to join the Suns a gamble, or a carefully calculated play?

With the benefit of 19 months of hindsight, let us assess.

THE RISING SUNS

Hardwick’s “80 per cent” statement is already factually incorrect.

In just two off-seasons, 39 per cent of Gold Coast’s list has been turned over. Nineteen players who were in the room the day he was unveiled as coach have either retired, been delisted or traded to other clubs.

“The game moves really, really quickly. From a personnel point of view, you can change 20 per cent of your list in an off-season,” Hardwick said this week.

Of those, Mabior Chol (Hawthorn), Jeremy Sharp (Fremantle), Elijah Hollands (Carlton) and Sam Day (Brisbane) are the only players to have seen regular game time elsewhere. If not for his knee injury in round two, Jack Lukosius (Port Adelaide) would also be part of that list.

Damien Hardwick (middle) alongside Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans (left) and chairman Bob East at his unveiling as Suns’ senior coach in August 2023. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

But the more genuine read of Hardwick’s bold declaration was that the bulk of the pieces he needed to win a flag were already at the club. Is that 80 per cent? No. But with the talent at his disposal, he would be the envy of a majority of coaches in the competition right now – and much of it was there before he walked through the door.

His midfield – Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson, Touk Miller and Sam Flanders – might be the best in the business. If not, it is neck-and-neck with Brisbane for that title.

Rowell, Anderson and Flanders all turn 24 this year. Meaning for the length of Hardwick’s six-year contract, they will all be playing in their prime.

Add Bailey Humphrey (20) and Will Graham (19) – Hardwick’s “Bash Brothers” – as the complementary pieces who have both shown considerable growth this season already and the Suns appear well-stocked in the engine room for the foreseeable future.

Last year Hardwick shuffled the magnets a lot. This season he has settled on what appears to be a favoured 23, allowing for injury.

“Last year I had to have a look at what we had. There was always going to be some changes,” he said.

“I wasn’t quite sure what this player could do. Could he play here? Can he do this?

“Sometimes you have to take on step back to take two steps forward and that is probably what we did last year in terms of personnel.

Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell form part of one of the best midfields in the AFL. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

“This year we’ve got a really strong understanding of what each player’s best position is.”

Gold Coast is the best defensive team in the competition, conceding an average of 72.5 points per game. It is also the highest scoring side, averaging 122 points.

The bookends – Sam Collins and Ben King – are two of the best in the business. Collins is the reigning club champion and rarely beaten one-on-one. King is averaging more than four goals per game and currently tied with Fremantle’s Josh Treacy for the Coleman Medal lead, having played one fewer game.

Their key position counterparts are some of the most exciting in the AFL. King has Jed Walter and Ethan Read alongside – both top-10 draft picks who good judges expect to become stars in the not-too distant future – and Collins has Mac Andrew, who the Suns rated so highly they handed a nine-year, $14m (after clauses) contract extension to last season.

Of the side named to play on Saturday, only two players – Collins and Jarrod Witts – are on the wrong side of 30.

Behind Witts, the Suns have 23-year-old Ned Moyle waiting in the wings, who the club believes is a ready-made No. 1 ruck.

The average age of premiership teams over the past two decades is 26.2 years. But only one club’s list – Collingwood (26.4 years) – sat above that threshold to start the season, suggesting the competition is trending younger in 2025.

Gold Coast’s average age is 24.7 years – ranked ninth.

On paper and in practice through the first four games, the Suns are a genuine contender, not just this season, but for at least the next few years.

RICHMOND IN REBUILD

Hardwick’s abrupt exit rubbed some Richmond fans the wrong way.

Despite presiding over one of the three genuine dynasties of the AFL era – winning three flags and reaching a prelim across four seasons – there remains some angst as to how it ended.

But it is clear now the split was best for both parties.

With the club’s 2022 trade period catch-and-kill of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper, it seemingly sold a dream that the good times could continue; that the Tigers were not a spent force.

They gave up picks 12 and 19 to land Taranto and a future first (pick 6) and pick 31 for Hopper. Both moved across on lucrative seven-year deals.

Just 10 games into their Richmond careers, the coach left.

Would the club have traded away such a haul to get those players in the door had it known Hardwick would leave? Perhaps not.

But if he had stayed, would the brutal-but-necessary calls to cut back the list and enter full rebuild mode have occurred? Likely not as quickly as it has.

Daniel Rioli is in his first season at the Gold Coast Suns. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos.

Daniel Rioli played nine years at Richmond. Picture: Josh Chadwick/Getty Images.

The key moving piece in it all is Daniel Rioli. Off of a maiden Jack Dyer Medal-winning season in 2024, the fan-favourite Tiger asked to be traded to the Suns. For picks 6 and 23, the deal was done.

To Gold Coast, Rioli was absolutely worth the two first-rounders it gave up. And to Richmond, that extra draft capital has helped expedite a necessary rebuild.

If Rioli was still wearing yellow and black this weekend, it is unlikely his presence would move the needle between a Richmond win and loss. But the swap has been a win for both clubs in their own ways.

That pick 23 (which became 27 after bid matching) went to North Melbourne in exchange for the Kangaroos’ 2025 first-rounder, which could be a top five pick by season’s end.

Prototypical 195cm midfielder Josh Smillie arrived with pick six (seven after bids) and could be unleashed in coming weeks having just returned from injury via the VFL.

The Tigers sent four late-round picks to Brisbane for its first-rounder, which became Harry Armstrong. Before his hamstring injury, the tall forward had shown promise in the Tigers’ attack with a pair of two-goal outings in his first four games.

Liam Baker was sent to West Coast for pick 14, which was on-traded to Fremantle alongside Shai Bolton to get back picks 10, 11 and 18.

That brought Taj Hotton, Jonty Faull and Luke Trainor to the club.

Premiership Tiger Shai Bolton faced his former side for the first time last weekend. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images.

Trainor has been a shining light in defence for the Tigers and looks a ready-made key defender already. Tall forward Faull will play his second career game on Saturday night after debuting last weekend against Fremantle.

Medium-forward Hotton is due back mid-year from an ACL injury.

And of course there is No. 1 pick Sam Lalor, who might already be Richmond’s best player. With his brute strength and goal kicking nous, the easy comparison for the 188cm midfielder is Dustin Martin. If he becomes anything like his predecessor, the Tigers will be well-serviced for the next decade and more.

Question marks will hover over the immediate futures of Tom Lynch and Dion Prestia, who are both off-contract at the end of the year. Lynch is finally fit again and will play a key role this season mentoring the young brigade of key talls the Tigers have brought in.

Prestia managed just 13 games last season and has not featured in 2025 due to an Achilles injury. Whether he and the club feel he can get his body right will be the deciding factor in him going around again next year.

Nathan Broad and Nick Vlastuin are both locked in until the end of 2026. The premiership pair will not be part of the next Richmond flag but they will be vitally important in this next transition phase, nurturing a promising young crop of defenders.

The Suns are clearly in a far more advanced position in terms of list build. They are ready to contend now, while the Tigers are still a few years away.

Richmond’s 2024 No. 1 draft pick Sam Lalor already looks like a genuine star. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

But while this might feel like two teams moving in opposite directions, there is plenty for Richmond fans to be excited about.

To The Tigers fans who suffered through 37 years of an agonising premiership drought, then danced with joy for four years in triple-premiership fantasy land, the club’s current predicament feels like somewhere in the middle.

This is not a team to contend right now. But due to the prudent list decisions, trading away stars and saying goodbye to club greats, Richmond’s ripping off of the band aid should see the Tigers return to the top earlier than they otherwise would have.

The rhetorical question is, what could Hardwick have done with the sudden influx of talent at the Tigers? Could he have harnessed it better than Adem Yze? Earlier? Would he have had the patience to do so a second time around?

Ultimately, it is irrelevant. What does matter is that both parties are in a better position than they were in May 2023, when Hardwick knew his time in yellow and black was up.

Originally published as AFL Tigers Suns: How Richmond and Gold Coast have changed since Damien Hardwick swapped clubs