Damien Hardwick Gold Coast coach: Chairman Bob East lifts lid on changes at Suns

Damien Hardwick’s revolution on the Gold Coast is taking shape — but with a warning from club powerbrokers to be patient. CALLUM DICK takes you inside the big changes.

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 27: Head coach Damien Hardwick during a Gold Coast Suns AFL training session at Austworld Centre Oval on February 27, 2024 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

And so begins the “Hardwick Era”.

When Gold Coast Suns chairman Bob East addressed a small group of assembled local media last week he spoke with passion and purpose about a completely revamped blueprint for success.

Easier said than done, of course.

The “Hardwick Era”, as he and CEO Mark Evans labelled it, would completely change the landscape of the Suns’ AFL presence.

An emphasis on winning games, above all else, with a flow-on effect of engaging the Gold Coast community and building a vocal fan base whose want to win matches that of its club.

The ultimate goal? To go from perennial underperformers to premiership contenders.

Damien Hardwick with Suns chief executive Mark Evans (L) and chairman Bob East. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

As Hardwick put it on Thursday, the immediate job for he and his playing group is to “win some bloody games”. Do that and the rest will follow.

Key to the Suns’ latest undertaking is an all-of-club shift in mentality, led by a man who has already watched the sunrise from the top of the AFL mountain.

Who is Damien Hardwick the coach? The motivator? The clubman?

Canvas the playing group and the answers will vary wildly.

Intelligent. Intimidating. Compassionate. Candid.

For some players their sole conversations with the coach are about footy. Others prefer to chat family or hobbies. It’s all on the table, always.

Hardwick is setting new standards for the Suns. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Hardwick has, so far, brought everything a struggling club yearned for when its CEO and chairman flew all the way to Italy to pitch a dream and vision to the triple premiership-winning coach.

“Damien is coming with a footy-first approach and we as a club have aligned ourselves completely with this approach,” East told this masthead.

“We’ve revised our mission. Starting with the on-field, for AFL and AFLW we’re absolutely here to win. We’re stating it, we’re sticking it on the walls – we’re telling our sponsors, members and fans that we’re here to win premierships, and there shouldn’t be a follow-up sentence to that.

“Of course it goes without saying there is lots of hard work, and many other teams are trying to do that, but you have to draw a line in the sand.

“Everything then boils down to, whatever meeting we might be having, is this the most important thing we should be discussing to win premierships? That is the footy-first approach.”

Damien Hardwick works the magnets during a pre-season game. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Hardwick has added all the backroom tools he needs to fast-track the Suns’ success.

He wanted men familiar with his complex system in the building to get a jump on the steep learning curve. So in came longtime Richmond football analysis manager, Hayden Hill. Then Shaun Grigg and Alex Rance. Ex-Richmond men who knew Hardwick, his processes and how to implement his system.

But still the going has not been easy.

A month ago Hardwick told this masthead the Suns were ahead of schedule. But with the season opener against Richmond now here, he conceded they “haven’t been close” to their best footy.

Exactly when that version of Hardwick’s Suns runs out onto People First Stadium is “the million dollar question” that East admits he cannot yet answer.

The Suns say Hardwick’s changes remain a work in progress. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“Do we think we can get absolutely every ounce of that change accomplished in pre-season? I think it’s fair to say it is a process,” he said.

“If you look at GWS last year they were not travelling well in the beginning of the season after a pretty radical change of plan. We hope to not have that same journey, but we are eyes wide open that it may take some time.”

Hardwick’s changes are not limited to the training track and match day.

Since he was unveiled as Suns coach on a lucrative six-year deal last August, he has systematically started uprooting the way things were done at the Austworld Centre.

Walls have been torn down and rebuilt. Rooms have been refurbished and repurposed. The designated relaxation space has been abandoned, traded in for common areas littered throughout the club’s offices.

“Everything has been redesigned,” East said.

“We’ve got a real eye to the workflow here now.

The Suns are undergoing what they call a redesign. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“When the players are taking time out, they’re visible and they’re here and there’s informal interaction, consistently.

“We used to have a relaxation room that was a bit quarantined. Now there are players mingling in the hub of it. That not only cuts to structure and communication, it strikes at culture – and if we’re going to do anything here it has to be led by a winning culture.”

Hardwick also leads club-wide morning fitness sessions. Anyone and everyone, from the front desk staffer to East himself, is welcome to partake.

“I’ve found that to be a real revelation,” he said.

“Along with the process and culture and the footy-first approach, Dimma has brought an energy that is palpable. It has the whole of club joining in.

“I’m going a couple of sessions a week myself, when he doesn’t injure me.

“It’s pretty brutal (but) it’s fantastic energy. What better way to start your day?

“Now the fact that some of the admin staff are doing better burpees than they were at the beginning of the season, what does that matter? Well, it probably does matter. It means they are more connected to the club … hopefully it’s making us a bit more fit for purpose.”

Off-field the club is also making moves to improve its financial foothold.

The Suns’ unique childcare centre initiative, which already has roots on the Gold Coast and Mackay, has become a blueprint that rival clubs are looking to emulate.

Further off-field ventures are well under way, though intimate knowledge of those remain in the club’s safe keeping.

Damien Hardwick and Gold Coast’s powerbrokers at the press conference where he was unveiled as coach. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

East revealed the club’s lines of communication with stakeholders have never been clearer than they are now. Much of that, again, is down to the man tasked with leading the team on game day.

“Everything is a continual process with Dimma,” the chairman said.

“Firstly with the playing group, he gives really clear instructions of what we’re trying to do, what the process is, what the expectations are and then breaking it down to component parts specific to where they sit on the field.

“In terms of off-field, it’s the same message.

“Never before have we had that cut through in discussions with partners and sponsors and membership … where all of a sudden they’re talking the same way the coaches are talking about what we’re trying to do.

“There is a greater understanding now of what we are, how we’re going to go about doing it and the energy that is required. People are leaning in and listening.

“Yes (Hardwick) has been there and done it before, tick. But he’s turned up with passion and an assertive approach.

“There’s a lot of other things that Damien will bring. There’s an increased profile, there’s a reputation and let’s face it, that is really helpful for our endeavour.

“We’ve had great support from all of our partners, particularly now that he has engaged with a number of them. He’s really leaning into this community.”

Originally published as Damien Hardwick Gold Coast coach: Chairman Bob East lifts lid on changes at Suns