Disciplined Hardwick stays the courseBy Paul Daffey
7:48 PM Sun 12 Jun, 2011RICHMOND coach Damian Hardwick has maintained an extremely disciplined line this year. After every match, he says his team learned a lot from the day's events but there's still a long way to go.
He makes a point of praising the opposition's best players, partly to deflect attention from his own players, but also because he respects those players.
Sometimes he praises his own players; he's actually more willing to single out players than most coaches.
After Sunday's match against the Sydney Swans, which the Swans won by 10 points, he went through all those steps—but he also admitted to regretting a missed opportunity.
"We've let two games slip over the last two weeks that we possibly could have nailed," Hardwick said.
(The other was the 15-point loss to Port Adelaide at TIO Stadium in Darwin before the bye, in round 10.)
Against the Swans, Hardwick admitted the Richmond camp was excited at three-quarter time. The Tigers had kept the Swans goalless in the third quarter; they were only six points behind; and they were kicking to the scoring end.
Dynamic midfielder Dustin Martin fuelled the excitement when he kicked a goal from 45m out to level the scores. The Tigers then edged ahead through a behind.
Then the Swans returned fire.
"I think those couple of goals against the flow of play hurt us," Hardwick said.
"They (the Richmond players) will gain from the experience. They were playing against a good side in Sydney, who are in the top six, but we'll look at things and get better.
"We just need to work on the consistency of our ball club. Certain players are getting where they need to go, but other players need to step up as well. "
Hardwick made special mention of the Swans players who stepped up when the team needed a shot in the arm in the last quarter.
He praised Ryan O'Keefe for his long goal, which turned the game, and Adam Goodes for fighting through a quiet patch and guiding his team towards victory.
Of his own players, he returned to another favourite theme: that the Tigers have improved through recruiting select players from other clubs.
"There are some really positive signs. I thought Bachar Houli was again terrific today; the addition of [Shaun] Grigg has been another positive step; Mitch Farmer today showed why we got him last year. I thought he was outstanding also," Hardwick said.
"We've added to our talent; we've got players who've improved; but we still understand that we need to take the next step to mix it with the big boys."
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