Richmond coach Damien Hardwick warns bigger challenges ahead despite big win Jackie Epstein
From: Sunday Herald Sun
May 08, 2011 RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick praised last night's win over Fremantle as the best of his tenure but warned there were bigger challenges ahead.
The Tigers posted their third consecutive victory with a 49-point demolition of the Dockers, who dropped their eighth straight at the MCG.
Hardwick said it was hard to assess his side's credentials.
"It's a great win. Probably the best win we've had our footy club," he said.
"But understand the difference between a Fremantle, no disrespect to them, but to a Collingwood, Geelong (and) those type of teams is another step again.
"We got pumped by those guys 10 goals each probably three or four weeks ago. Once we start getting that, we may get some credibility."
Hardwick was quick to point out there was room for improvement when asked about finals.
The Tigers are on the cusp of the eight with three wins and a draw.
"Look, it is Round 7. At Round 24 we may start to embrace it," he said.
"We've still got a lot of areas that we need to work on. We still give the opposition too many easy scores. We work really hard for ours and then at stages we give away a couple of easy goals.
"We're not getting anywhere near ahead of ourselves, we've got a formidable opponent next week in the Western Bulldogs and we're really looking forward to the challegne again.
"Once we start beating those sides that have had the wood on us, we'll start to think about how far we can actually go."
One aspect of the win that particularly pleased Hardwick was having 10 individual goalkickers.
Trent Cotchin, Robin Nahas and Jack Riewoldt each booted four goals.
" 'Cotch' was going to (Matthew) Pavlich the majority of the night so for him to finish up with four goals was a great result," he said. "Robbie, his formhas raised him up a level in the standard we expect of him. He's making positive steps there.
"Dusty (Martin) had a quiet game and Brett Deledio did, too, but they battled through and made a real solid contribution in the last quarter to help get us over the line."
Hardwick said the Tigers had built confidence from good recruiting and natural improvement.
"The one thing I will say is our playing list, I think, has drastically improved," he said. "We've added (Bachar) Houli, we've added (Shaun) Grigg, Cotchin's become a player we thought he could be.
"He's still got some way to go. Brad Miller's brought in some structure. We've added (Reece) Conca, we've added (Jake) Batchelor and there's been further improvements from Nahas and (Jake) King that has made our list better.
"Our understanding of the way we want to play has improved, defensively we've improved, we've still got a little way to go. But talent-wise ... our coaching department and recruiting department deserve a lot of credit."
The only concern was Matthew White who appeared to hurt a shoulder.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/tigers-coach-damien-hardwick-warns-bigger-challenges-ahead-despite-big-win-agaisnt-fremantle/story-e6frf9jf-1226051758021
