NO LONGER THE LONELIEST BLOKE ON EARTH By DAMIEN HARDWICK, JAMES HIRD
FIRSTSAT 17 JUL 2010, Pages 48, 65 Richmond coach DAMIEN HARDWICK sat down this week with his 2000 premiership captain JAMES HIRD to discuss his first season at the helm of the Tigers . . .JH: First day at the Richmond footy club. Was it as exciting as your first day at Essendon when you had a car crash with a teammate?DH: Probably more daunting. When you play footy you're obviously reasonably confident in your ability. Coming in as a fresh head coach, you think, `Geez, I've got a big job ahead of me'.
Having had nothing to do with Richmond, a big club, a club that had probably been on its knees for a little while, it was exciting, but at the same time it was daunting.
What do you do when you come to the club as a coach?The first thing I did was meet Chris Newman and the leadership group. I only found out late the night before that I'd won the job.
And so then basically had to come in the next day for a press conference. It was great to meet Chris Newman, Daniel Jackson, Brett Deledio and those type of players and just go through what we were going to do.
Had you met those guys before?I think I met Newy (Newman) at the tribunal. No, I'm only joking.
You whacked him?No, no. No, not before. Actually, I think I might have played with Chris. No, I can't remember.
Ben Cousins. Will he play next year?Geez, a hard (one), Hirdy.
Look, that's a list management (issue). All Ben can do at the moment is do what he does well, (which) is play footy. He's going really, really well. Obviously, last week he had a setback. But from our point of view he's putting his best foot forward. But there's a lot of things that come into play. We don't quite know which way the AFL are going to go -- whether they're going to cap rotations, which is obviously going to have an impact. Whether Ben's body is going to go forward from that point of view.
Is it totally in his hands if he has a great seven weeks, or are there other factors?No, there's other factors that will come into it and myself, (football manager) Craig Cameron and our match committee will sit down and decide what's the best thing, because Ben, whilst he's an important player for us at the moment and playing very, very well, you know there are some players that will at some stage go past him. And that's our decision that we've got to make.
Last question on Ben. Your thoughts when you found out he was in hospital?I thought they were joking when they first told me. But then it was very alarming to hear that one of your players (is) in intensive care. And then the fact that his girlfriend was very traumatised by the whole thing, finding him, which was concerning, and then, you know, I'm much like you. I'm a big family man, so then our concern was Ben's parents, who were obviously in Perth. So we were trying to keep them informed. It was very, very hard.
It was a day I don't really want to go through again.
The last six weeks have been really a great reward for the tough first half of the year. What's it like as a coach when you're winning games of footy like that?Yes, I do get a bit excited, I must admit, towards the end. You were giving me a bagging the other night, apparently. Look, it's great because I think it gives just reward to the players. Our players have worked extremely hard. (They) didn't get a great deal of reward, obviously, the first nine rounds, but for them to come out and start to get that winning feeling . . . You won a lot of games as a player. You probably take it for granted a lot of the time when you're in a successful side. It's really exciting for them and they can't wait to get to training every week and improve again.
I don't think we bagged you. We just wondered which side of the fence you should have been sitting on when Andrew Collins kicked that goal. Because you looked as if you were in row six.My wife said, `You've got to settle down'. But I was just so pleased. You're down two guys before the end of the first half and then, you know, Jake King shouldn't have played on. He had a horrendous corky. He's only got little legs, so it didn't make much of a difference. But there were guys that were really, really struggling and I thought our boys were extremely brave. Fremantle had some quality players out, but to beat a side the quality of Fremantle, a top-four side, was a great step forward.
For what it's worth, even if your wife has bagged you, I think the public love the fact that you're so passionate. Singing that song. Is it an amazing experience to be sitting there as a coach of the Richmond footy club singing it and hearing the fans sing it as well?Yes, it is. I never forget the first time we won in Melbourne versus West Coast. We were well up in the last quarter and I think there were 30-odd thousand people and they started singing it halfway through the last quarter. The passion that it brings in our fans is phenomenal.
I must admit, being in that circle when the songs being sung, is outstanding and it's a real uplifting song. There's a lot of great songs in the AFL but, I know I'm biased, but it's the best song to sing. The Bombers' (theme song) was pretty good.
You played at Essendon, which was a big club, and you probably rode a bit of a wave, and you're riding a bit of a wave here. Is the momentum the same at two big clubs?There is a little bit of difference.
Essendon was successful when we played for a long period of time.
And Richmond probably hasn't had that success since the early '80s and the passion in our supporter base, like other clubs, is great. But they're right on the edge of their seats at the moment. I have really enjoyed the passion of the Richmond fans and they should never underestimate how much the players and whole club appreciate them sticking with us during a difficult period. We want to deliver them success, but, as a coaching and playing group, we realise how much hard work has to be done to deliver that for them.
As a club we need to be relentless and united if we are to achieve that goal. Right now it is about learning and improving. That is the focus that I believe will lay the right foundation.
A lot of coaches, they talk about the isolation of the job. When you weren't winning games, did you feel isolated at all?My first NAB Cup game was away in Tassie, and I was sitting there in the hotel afterwards. We got absolutely poleaxed by Hawthorn, and I thought, `What the hell have I got myself in for?'.
I felt like the loneliest bloke in the world, as you'll find out, Hirdy, when you take over one of these clubs at some stage. But then I think what happens is you learn to rely (on) your family. Your kids are great. They just love the Tigers no matter what and they love you as a father, obviously, and they get you back on track pretty quickly. If you've got a great group of people around you, you absorb the pain of a loss together. And that's something we've formulated over the course of the first 10 weeks.
You've gone from being a coach who couldn't win a game for the first few rounds to winning five out of six. You're now a great coach. I mean, that's the media perception.
How do you look at it?We haven't changed anything the way we've done it. All our preparation's been the same.
What probably has changed is the players' ability to adhere to instructions. As funny as it sounds, they were too good at adhering to the way we wanted to play. They forgot how to play footy in a way. And the other thing they've done is they've managed to slow themselves down. We had a tendency to rush our decision-making. Now we're much more composed.
Is that the main thing you've changed?I think so. I think we're starting to find the group that clicks together. At the start of the year we were having four to five changes every week. There's some guys that we think that are still outside the side that are going to be good players for us. Like Alex Rance, Jayden Post, Dave Gourdis, Dean Polo, those type of players. But at the moment we've got a group that are playing really good football together. It's going to be exciting when we get greater depth in the years to come.
The first magnet you put on the board each week, who is it?That's a good question. I'm trying to think of the right answer here. There isn't one in particular.
Like most coaches, we probably fight over the 22nd bloke more than anyone. But the coaching landscape's changed a little bit. Generally the assistant coaches pick their back six or seven players. And then I'll try and argue with (backline coach Justin Leppitsch) to try and get the blokes I want in. The assistant coaches have a great say now.
Chris Newman last year made a really big stance for the club when he went to see Terry Wallace.
What sort of person is he?He's an outstanding character. And I couldn't think of a better person to lead our footy club. He's got great morals, he's got great leadership and he's a great player, which makes up the three keys for mine. There was a bit of play in the Hawthorn game where (in the) last quarter, I think, he (kicked a goal that) put us a couple of points down and he grabbed the jumper and kissed the jumper to show how much he loved this footy club.
He'd had a reasonable season up to that point but that was his turning point right there, and I think he's grown as a player and a captain from that point. He's been terrific this year and he'll be well up there in our best-and-fairest and probably in All-Australian calculations as well.
When you first came to Richmond, did you think Jack Riewoldt had the talent that he is showing now?No, I didn't. (Forwards coach) Danny Daly has done a hell of a lot of work with him.
Jack's always had the ability to play the game. One on one, I don't think I've seen a guy that does things as well. We often speak about you. About how the quality of you as a player. It wasn't the sensational things you did well, it was the easy (stuff). Stop nodding your head when I say this (laughs).
You did the little things really well consistently and those are the things he needed to get into his game. Every now and then he plays outside his boundaries, as all forwards do, and we quickly belt him into line with a bit of four-by-two over the head. But the thing that he's doing really well is he's playing the percentages a hell of a lot better.
Mitch Morton. Where's he sitting at the moment?He's probably, talent-wise, in our best 22. He's got some deficiencies in his game that we've gone through. Defensively, he had to work on some things, and his ball-winning ability. He's starting to work on those things now at Coburg. He'll force his way in at some stage and, although he's not playing senior footy, in my eyes he's become a better player over the last three or four weeks.
Probably the other thing is we might see him in as a positional change. We'll probably try and make him into a wingman, an attacking wingman. We feel that the way the game's going, the position that he played prior has become redundant.
The coaching on the boundary line is really interesting. Can you take us through why you do it and even who calls the shots from the box?Probably the greatest thing it gives you is automatic feedback to the players. The players these days, as you know, it's much like your kids. They crave instant feedback. So as soon as they get off the ground I can have a chat to them and tell them what they're doing well. And what they need to improve. It also develops the coaches upstairs as well. The line coaches are in control of their lines. So I bark up and down questions all the time, how things are going, KPIs. They make moves.
At the end of the day, generally they get ratified by me. But they're entitled to make their own moves as well. And I think what it does is it develops them as assistant coaches, it gives them a great relationship with their players as well. (Leppitsch walks in.)
And what about Justin Leppitsch? How's he going as a coach?Don't do that. He gets all excited. He starts walking in with the T-shirt on, `Best Backs Coach'.
Unbelievable.
Last question. Young players who Richmond supporters haven't seen a lot of who you're going to take a bet on the next two to three years.
Can you roll off three or four who you're looking forward to watching their careers develop?Probably the funny thing about it is that we've played most of those guys. We played every kid we drafted in the national draft. Ben Nason's played every game. He'll miss this week because his vision's still not great from that knock he got from Jake King. David Astbury we think is going to be a terrific player. Ben Griffiths is another guy we think is going to have an enormous future. And another kid we haven't seen a lot of is Troy Taylor, a young indigenous talent who's finding his feet in Melbourne. But every now and then he does some things that remind me so much of a young Michael O'Loughlin and he's just going to be an exciting player.
HARDWICK ON . . .
BRETT DELEDIOEven when I was at Hawthorn, Brett Deledio was a standout No. 1 that year. I like good kickers behind the ball and that's what Brett gives us.
I think he can be an elite player of the competition. At the moment he's a very good player. The consistency going forward is what we're after. He's won two Jack Dyer medals. But he needs to be part of a successful side to be rated as the elite. And that's where we want to head to as well. Chris Newman's another outstanding back-flanker we've got playing well at the moment, and Dan Connors. So we've got three really good players down there playing great footy at the minute.
DUSTIN MARTINHe's a terrific player and the great thing about him is that he's improved every week. He came in as a guy that could quite easily play AFL. You know, we haven't had to do a lot of work with him. Probably the one thing he does do too much of is when he's out in space he'll actually go looking for the contact to give that "don't argue'' sometimes. He's a terrific player. His ability to win that ball in close and then get in and out of traffic and use the power of his legs is second to none.
DANIEL JACKSONI must admit, before getting here I didn't rate him anywhere near as highly as I do now. He is an enormous talent, not only on-field, but his leadership is outstanding. Being near the ground you can hear his voice around the ground and he just does not stop talking. He has become, in my eyes, an elite player of this footy club. He's just got to stop getting bloody suspended.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/damien-harwick-no-longer-the-loneliest-bloke-on-earth/story-e6frf9jf-1225893106279
