Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick apologises to his mother for F-bomb

The AFL didn’t like the outburst from the Gold Coast Suns coach last week but there was another significant person who liked it even less.

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has demanded a positive response from the Suns on Sunday following last week’s shock loss to North Melbourne. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

A rare text from his mother with “the angry emoji face” was a reminder to Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick that he had to be “better” than swearing in a press conference as he did after last week’s loss to North Melbourne.

Hardwick said his team had to “grow the f**k up”, which earned the ire of the AFL, but no penalty, and followed that with a searing review of the game with his players this week hoping for a bold response against Port Adelaide on Sunday at People First Stadium.

“Can I first of all apologise to my mother,” Hardwick said in a Suns social media post.

“She doesn’t send texts with emojis very often but I knew she was angry.

“When you say ‘you’re better than that’ with regard to the swearing, I do apologise.

“I knew she was angry because it had the angry emoji face. I didn’t even know she knew how to use emojis, so Pam, I’m very sorry.”

We can confirm Dimma’s mum did wash his mouth out with soap 🧼 pic.twitter.com/p74tyEGxql

— Gold Coast Suns (@GoldCoastSUNS) July 12, 2024

The shock loss to the Kangaroos maintained the Suns’ unwanted record of having failed to win away from home this season.

In contrast, Gold Coast’s home record in 2024 is perfect, with their scalps including reigning premiers Collingwood only two weeks ago.

“You can sit there and yell and scream all you want, but you’ve got to sit there and understand the game has to look a certain way for us to win,” Hardwick said.

“The players are taking great ownership of that.

“There’s a level of responsibility of coming and playing in a Suns jumper and the thing we focused on (in the review) was our intent.”

Hardwick said the Suns had to be better in the “general contest” to “move forward”.

“We have shown that when we do play to our capacity, we play a great style of footy in and around the contest,” he said.

Originally published as Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick apologises to his mother for F-bomb