Richmond CEO Brendon Gale backs coach Damien Hardwick, declaring he’s the right man for the jobMichael Warner
Herald-Sun
April 28, 2015 RICHMOND on Monday night declared coach Damien Hardwick “the right man for the job”.
Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale urged supporters not to panic and said calls for Hardwick to be sacked were “a very short-sighted view”.
“The coach is the right man for the job,” Gale told the Herald Sun. "The coach can coach. This is a shared responsibility.
“We're not a bad team at full strength but unfortunately, when you look at the profile of the list, when we experience injuries our talent is thin at the bottom end.
“We fall away reasonably quickly and so that's something we need to continue to work on.
“We invested fairly heavily in last year's draft for that reason, the first unencumbered draft in a while.”
Richmond has beaten Carlton and lowly Brisbane and dropped winnable games against Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs for a 2-2 start the season.
Harwick, 42, is contracted until the end of next season and Gale said his tenure was not an issue.
“From 0-9 in 2010, Damien has got improvement out of this team every year,” Gale said.
“A couple of disappointing performances, as much as they hurt, means we're not going to panic.
“Friday night was disappointing, we all feel that, the fans and staff and particularly the players and coaches. We could sit around feeling sorry for ourselves or we can immediately get back on the horse, dust ourselves off and get the right result this weekend.
“The competition is becoming very intense and while the result was disappointing, I think this year will be all about how teams bounce back. Richmond supporters are so hungry for success and they've got every right to be hungry, because they just haven't had it.
“But from where we've come from we've made real progress. We've got better every year.”
Asked if he could guarantee Hardwick would be at the club next year, Gale said: "He has a contract in place. He's the right man for the job and we would expect he will be the right man for 2016."
Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin on Monday insisted his team could bounce back against Geelong on Saturday.
The Tigers have had a disappointing start to the season. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
The Tigers have had a disappointing start to the season. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images Source: Getty Images
“It’s just tidying up a few things we know we can do and in the past we’ve shown we’re capable of,” Cotchin said.
“It’s just a matter of doing it consistently. You never want to disappoint your coach, especially on behaviours we respect really highly in our club.
“The great thing about our group is that we’re pretty aware of whether we’re disappointing or not.
“We’ll challenge each other as a playing group to make sure our performance is more consistent.”
The Tigers will be without star midfielder Brett Deledio and forward Ben Griffiths (both calf) for Saturday's clash with the Cats.
“There’s no bigger challenge than facing Geelong who had a loss,” Cotchin said.
“They will be looking to play some good footy so we need to have a really positive week on the track.”
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