Hardwick's Tigers rub salt into Port's wounds MICHAEL GLEESON
July 12, 2010 ON SATURDAY night, Damien Hardwick salted the wound of Port Adelaide's plainly wrong decision to reappoint Mark Williams last year only to have to sack him last Friday.
In lifting the born-again Tigers to a fifth win in six matches, Hardwick reinforced the error of Port Adelaide's decision last year.
Reappointing Williams was just one part of Port's bad judgement. The other was also starkly revealed last Friday - by reappointing Williams, Port missed the chance to appoint then club assistant coach Hardwick as its new leader.
Port would not be the only side queasy at Hardwick's non-appointment. Essendon, a loser again yesterday and now sitting on equal points with the Tigers, also chose another ahead of its own credentialled former premiership player.
Hardwick, at his job interview, reputedly was more bearish about the Bombers' immediate prospects than others, but the relative form of the Tigers and Dons this year in Matthew Knights' third year in the job makes for an interesting reflection on that interview period.
After the nine-hour board meeting it took Port to decide to reappoint Williams, the club did so in the knowledge it would certainly lose Hardwick as the next coach of the club. Port knew Hardwick's credentials and what was at risk, but was persuaded by the devil it knew.
Poetically, the Tigers' first win of the year was over Port Adelaide and it was that victory - followed by a furiously joyous, sweaty, drink-soaked, screaming rendition of the best song in football, that will live as strongly as an image of this season as any other - that almost signed Williams' papers at Port.
What has happened at Richmond in the five weeks since has been nothing short of stunning. It was as though - as that punk, mosh-pit version of the song suggested - it was a moment of liberation for the Tigers.
They had unburdened themselves of the growing possibility of a winless season that was consigning them to being described as one of the worst teams of all time, or at least since Fitzroy.
They were also liberated in a far more practical way. They began to play with a freedom and confidence they had not shown in the early rounds. The change that has come over the team from Punt Road has not been a product of injured players returning or radical new tactics. It is from a better understanding of how to play.
Hardwick has rapidly earned the undiluted affection of his players with a consistent approach and manner and a belief in his game plan that has lifted the confidence in the players.
In the early rounds it appeared the players were working so hard to adhere to how Hardwick wanted them to play that they forgot to play football. Now they have found a better balance in their game.
Hardwick has found a better balance in the right number of rebounding runners. The consistency of Chris Newman and Brett Deledio across half-back has been complemented by Dan Connors also sliding in and offering that third runner who gets the ball 30-plus times a game. Deledio looks a better player this year, not only for maturity, but for a more team-oriented defensiveness to his game.
The midfield should have been hurt by the absence of Nathan Foley but this has been covered by the early emergence of Dustin Martin - and Trent Cotchin's body finally allowing him to do what it had been denying him.
Shane Tuck's reinvention as a player has been a feat of personal resurrection or Midas coaching.
A not-insignificant factor has also been that ruckman Angus Graham has surprised even the most ardent Richmond folk almost as much as Mark Jamar with the Demons.
Doubtless, having a player to reliably mark and kick goals makes a difference to the confidence of a side.
The trend of modern football for congested zones has swung the game in Jack Riewoldt's favour. A player without pace but with exceptional hands and the smarts to read the play, he is a classic contested mark.
But Saturday night's win over Fremantle spoke more of intangibles than anything so individual. At half-time, the Tigers were down two men and Jake King was carrying such a bad cork he should not have got back on the ground.
Richmond was out on its feet and should not have won - but it did and it deserved to. The Tigers had not just won their fifth game but had beaten a top-four side.
They have the next seven games at home. Of those, St Kilda, Collingwood and perhaps Carlton look a bridge too far. But that still delivers four probable victories and a season of nine wins. Cripes, they couldn't finish ninth again, could they?
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