Damien Hardwick lauds unheralded hero’s role in uplifting Dustin Martin“He was one of the greatest role players, if not the greatest role player that our football club has ever seen.”
Jack Jovanovski
SEN
June 26, 2023 Decorated three-time Richmond premiership coach Damien Hardwick has opened up on a host of intriguing topics including Kane Lambert's crucial one-two-punch partnership with numerous offensive-minded Tigers, the controversial nature of Jason Castagna's early retirement, and his meaningful thoughts on superstar Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin.
Hardwick, who shockingly ceased his storied Tigerland tenure after Richmond's narrow 'Dreamtime at the G' defeat to Essendon in Round 10, also flagged his desire to "step back in" to AFL coaching during a jam-packed discussion on the Dyl and Friends podcast.
The host of Dyl and Friends, ex-GWS and Carlton footballer Dylan Buckley, surfaced the topic of Lambert and the unheralded defensive role the midfielder-forward played in complementing the attack-heavy game styles of Martin, Shai Bolton, Shane Edwards, and others of the like, throughout his highly-appreciated Tigers tenure.
'Dimma' stated they were hard relationships to describe, detailing Lambert's critical defensive job of supplementing a host of Richmond's attacking guns.
"Spot on, it's very, very hard to explain, even as a coach, we used to call (the partnership) 'Barry', it was a 'Barry and Larry' sort of thing," Hardwick began explaining.
"The reality is, Dustin's got some strengths in the game. Offensively, he's incredibly gifted, [but] defensively is where he's okay, but it's not his number one strength, so instead of getting Dustin to play as a defensive element of the game, because if we did that we'd be taking away his strengths [and] we'd lose the offensive impact, whereas Kane, offensively, was okay but defensively had a great understanding of role clarity, about what was required at certain times, and so those two worked in conjunction the whole time so Dustin could just play, Kane would basically be thinking for [him].
"Dustin's a bad example, [Lambert] did that for Shai (Bolton) and Shane Edwards and all that sort of stuff, but his role was really, really important because it complemented other roles, and that's what he did really, really well, and that's why those role players are so important to the fabric of, not only our footy club but every footy club, really."
https://www.zerohanger.com/damien-hardwick-lauds-unheralded-heros-role-in-uplifting-dustin-martin-laments-guilt-over-early-jason-castagna-retirement-139072/
