Hardwick rues missed opportunityrichmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen
6:44 PM Sun 29 August, 2010RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick said his side should never have been in a position to require the miracle comeback they almost pulled off against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers had the best of the first term, but then got outscored 10 goals to one in the second to be 59 points down early in the third quarter.
They then kicked 10 of the next 11 goals, but Port kicked the next three to make the game safe.
"The second quarter was horrendous," he said after the game. "It was amazing - at times we had control of the ball, but for just one reason or another we wouldn't kick it, I think at one stage we had seven kicks and 22 handballs.
"A lot of that resulted in turnovers, obviously we were caught offside, they get easy goals going back the other way, but I think we rectified that at half time.
"I thought in the first quarter we didn't take full advantage of the dominance of play that we had - I think we kicked 2.5 or 2.6, and it was probably reflective of the day, we just couldn't quite take our chances."
The first-year coach said while his side should never have been able to get close to stealing the win, he was rapt with the way they worked to turn things around after the long break.
"Whenever you're 10 goals down, as harsh as it is, you don't deserve to be anywhere near the game," he said.
"We fought our backsides off that last quarter, I was really proud of the guys - we spoke about it at half time, saying this game could go one of two ways, it can either become a 100-point blowout, or we can get some respect back.
"Chris Newman stood up and addressed the group, and strong leaders do that, and we got a great result from that.
"We pride ourselves on never giving up, and there's probably only been a couple of times where I could say that hasn't happened this year."
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