We sell belief at Richmond now Mike Sheahan | Herald Sun November 13, 2009 DAMIEN Hardwick was front-page news 10 weeks ago when Richmond announced its new coach, then promptly went to ground.
That's not the way of new coaches, particularly not the Richmond variety, where every next one is hailed as the true Messiah.
Hardwick, though, is his own man, a coach with, yes, the obligatory plan, coupled with a pledge to stand or fall by that plan.
He has earned his stripes in the AFL: two premierships as a player, one as an assistant coach. He's going to do it his way because he has succeeded against the odds since being discarded by North Melbourne as a teenager.
Hardwick says results will do the talking for him. He sees himself as a foreman in an extensive building program, rather than a salesman looking for a quick return.
He likes to describe himself as a mild-mannered accountant by trade who may have been a lunatic on the football field.
Depending on the question, he is happy to be stereotypical accountant or the hard-nosed footballer.
MS: You had the the most hyped inauguration ceremony since Obama went to the White House, yet we haven't sighted you since. Where have you been? DH: I've been working. Obviously the planning that goes into coaching an AFL side is very important, and I felt I had to get myself and my staff on board dotting the i's and crossing the t's.
We've planned thoroughly, we've got everything nailed down 'til Christmas and then some. We just want to be very methodical in what we do and everything related to team rules and game plan.
How do you balance the need to give the supporters something to be optimistic about and your natural inclination to go about your business in private? At the moment, I think the Richmond supporters want to see their coach actually working with the players. Anything that takes me away from that at this stage is probably robbing the development of our players. I realise there is an importance to sell the Richmond Football Club, and that will come in due course.
I get the distinct impression you're going to be low-key. That's probably right. The players are my No. 1 priority. To get them playing a good style of football that can actually take us to our 11th premiership is my No. 1 job.
What happens when the president, the CEO and media director come to you about projecting the footy club, selling hope, selling memberships and merchandise? We don't sell hope, we sell belief at Richmond now.
Huh? I told the board in my presentation, "Listen, I'll be happy to promote the club, but anything that takes away from my development time from the players is going to affect us long term, so it's paramount that I spend as much time as I can with the players".
Look, I'm low-key, low-key. I think Richmond just needs to be head down, bum up at this stage. Let's just work hard and let our results on the field do the talking.
Probably the one thing we want to put out to our fans is to have belief, belief in the plan we're going to put in place.
I know it's easy to sit here and say we're going to have the hardest pre-season, we're going to do this and that, we're going to stick with the plan and go from there.
Have you been tempted into contemplating the number of wins next year? No. The great thing about young lists is you never know what they're going to do.
I can't wait for draft day, can't wait to see what players come in. You never know where we're going to go.
Did you get the right job? Nutted at Essendon, overlooked at Melbourne, rejected at North, then finally appointed by Richmond. It's an exciting job. It's a great job, actually. It's why Justin Leppitsch came here (as an assistant). He wants to help Richmond succeed.
Why is it different here? It's like the last great ... I don't know what you call it, frontier, challenge. It is a big challenge, but it's an exciting one. It's great to have a great plan, but you need a team of skilled builders, and that's what I think we've arranged.
I'm really happy with the team I've got. They're all hard-working, great teachers, great communicators, hopefully we'll do great things.
The vibrancy around the club is really good at the moment. We've got a young list, an exuberant coaching staff, a new game style, new team rules, everything's new again.
Have the players seen the real you yet, the prankster? What do you mean, the real me? I'm a mild-mannered accountant by trade, a lunatic on the field, but a mild-mannered accountant.
What's been the gist of your message so far? That we've got a lot to learn. We're going through a transformation phase in terms of a game plan, staffing and facilities that's going to take some time. The players are learning. We've taken them right back to some basic concepts and then we move forward from there.
It's a saturation process on a couple of key principles. A couple of areas that I believe they need to work on are the defensive aspects of their game and also their offensive movement with regard to their decision-making.
We're going to drill them very, very hard on those over the course of the summer.
Decision-making or execution of the skills? I think it's more decision-making. If I give them a simple framework of how to play, it makes the skill execution easier.
We take away the risky kicks. Let's just kick to a nice contest that's easy to hit.
What we want to do is promote a game plan that actually gets us to where we need to go, and we've just go to develop the talent to catch up.
Don't tell me we're going to see a side go out there, get the ball and kick it long? That's radical. I think at this stage, where the Richmond footy club is at, we'll promote that simple brand of footy. There won't be too many tricks to us, we'll know how we play and the opposition will know how we play.
What we've got to do, though, is actually make sure we do it that well that opposition sides can't combat it. As funny as it seems, everybody knows what Geelong does, everyone knew what Brisbane (2001-04) did, but they were that good that you couldn't stop them, and that's a philosophy we're going with as well.
What are your early impressions? I've been impressed. The playing group are great. They're very coachable, they want to learn, which I suppose comes with having a new coach, but they've been very willing.
If a Richmond supporter crossed your path in the street and asked you what he or she might be most excited about in May/June/July next year, what would you say? Development of our playing squad. From our point of view, results are important, but they can lead to a bit of a false dawn.
We'll teach players concepts, what we're trying to teach them with regard to game plan and team rules.
Disappointed with what happened at North Melbourne? I'm always disappointed to lose. Probably sums up my career really. I've been delisted from North Melbourne, I got the a--- from Essendon, missed out on the Essendon (coaching) job, then missed out on the North Melbourne job (after being passed over by Melbourne two years ago).
But when I want to get something, I'll keep fighting to get there.
In all honesty, I think North got a great coach. I did a Level 3 (coaching course) with Brad Scott and he was outstanding. He's forthright, he knows what he's talking about, he's got a capacity to learn; I think he's a good choice.
He's got a bit of you in him - tough, uncompromising defender, in your face? I think he has, yeah, I think he has.
Let's go back to decision-making versus skill execution. Your (Richmond's) goal/behinds ratio was the worst in the comp this year. Jack Riewoldt, for example, kicked 32.27. I love the way he goes about his footy, but it's a problem - technical or psychological. I didn't even know there was anything wrong with his kicking. He hasn't missed a goal at training.
Look, we rate guys on certain things and that was one that did come up as a red flag with Jack. A lot of it is just technique, getting a routine. From my point, you don't change a routine that much, just get better at it.
Do you need to go backwards to eventually go forward? I don't know whether you need to go backwards. What we're going to do is not so much worry about ... look, the result's important, don't get me wrong, but it's the way you play to get that result.
At this stage, we're going to get them more process-orientated than result-driven.
Sometimes I reckon you can take shortcuts to get to where you need to go. I reckon a lot of coaches come into this industry and have a three-year or a five-year plan. The strength of the coach, I reckon, is to stick to that plan.
We'll be sticking to the plan.
What happens if the plan isn't seen be working after three or four losses? Doesn't everybody lose the faith? No, you've got to maintain the faith. At the end of the day, the board makes the decision whether you and your plan is no good or not.
Whose game plan will you adopt? We'll take bits and pieces of what I've learned along the way, facets of the Adelaide game plan, the Geelong game plan, the Hawthorn game plan, the St Kilda game plan.
I know they look different, but they play basically to the same fundamentals.
Geelong averages 475 possessions a game. I thought you were going for a simple game plan? They use the ball a hell of a lot more, but they've got an extremely gifted side.
We'll be defensively orientated for starters. You look at the good sides, defence is the thing that wins you games.
The thing that St Kilda did very well, and it's something our guys can take belief from, is that their talent didn't change enormously over a 12-month period, but their systems and their attitude did.
This club has played finals in two of the past 27 years. Any theories? I don't want to comment on the past, but I think what happens is a lot of the time ... I know I keep harping "If you have a plan, have a blueprint; if you stick to the blueprint, I reckon you'll eventually get to where you want to go".
The problem sometimes is people take shortcuts. If you take shortcuts, you might get a slight increase quickly, but it's going to cost you somewhere along that plan.
The great thing I love about (president) Gary March, (CEO) Brendon (Gale), general manager of football) Craig Cameron, myself is that we're adamant that we're sticking to this plan.
Can you make them significantly better players? There are things you can teach them, certain things to do in certain situations. You can make them smarter.
Give them cues that this is what's going to happen in certain circumstances.
We want to make our guys predictable to each other. That's why St Kilda became such a good side, that's why Hawthorn beat Geelong in a Grand Final (2008).
Play your role and only your role. Let the next bloke play his role. That's the message.
You've gone far and wide for your assistants. Is there anyone you missed out on? I did speak to Adam Simpson, Clarko, the bugger, got him. Really great guy. He's gone to a great club in Hawthorn. Clarko's got one victory over me already.
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