Hardwick's next contract discussion [merged]

[one-eyed]

Blowtorch on Damien Hardwick

By Kim Hagdorn
Sport News First
16 February 2012

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick only has to continue doing what he has for the past two years to probably be considered a success this season.

It would also most likely win the Tigers boss and extension to his contract.

The former Essendon and Port Adelaide hard nut is destined to be the first AFL coach in 2012 to suffer blowtorch assessment of his performance in endeavours to continue a drive up the premiership ladder that Hardwick promised when he took over a once proud club a little more than two years back.

Additional blast-furnace attention on Hardwick is that he is the only AFL coach in 2012 who is out of contract at the end of the season.

Any slightest early stumbling from the Tigers and there is no question that prospects of coaching great Mick Malthouse being touted as an eventual replacement for Hardwick will rage through AFL circles.

Malthouse is a 1980 Richmond premiership player and is out of coaching for the first time since 1984, after his controversial departure from Collingwood at the end of last season to make way for Pies legend Nathan Buckley.

Since losing the 1982 grand final, Richmond has played in just two finals campaigns bowing out in preliminary finals in 1995 and again in 2001.

The Tigers have also managed ninth-place finishes on six occasions since introduction of the top-eight finals system in 1994.

Hardwick’s determined effort to instil a ruthless brand of football into his developing troopers confronts a daunting start to the 2012 campaign.

The Tigers launch the season with a traditional showdown with premiership fancies Carlton and Collingwood, before taking on Melbourne, then reigning premiers Geelong in Geelong and then top-four candidates West Coast at Etihad.

Only Melbourne, which is in a similar mode to the Tigers in their rebuilding phase and another top eight candidate, shapes as a genuine winning chance to the Tigers in their opening five engagements.

Since taking over the struggling Tigers in time for his debut season in 2010 Hardwick orchestrated a gradual crawl up the AFL premiership ladder.

It was Hardwick’s mantra to rebuild Richmond back to a finals force when he took the top job from Jade Rawlings who had been Tigers caretaker coach after the unsavoury departure of Terry Wallace at the end of 2009.

Hardwick has finished 15th with six wins in 2010 and then 13th with an additional two successes last year.

Hardwick and his recruiting staff injected some much needed grunt and physical presence around the stoppages with attraction of former Adelaide big man Ivan Maric through aggressive trading late last year.

He potentially teams ideally with emerging on-ball super talents Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin to generate the crucial drive for a constant source of ball-supply to potential match-winning forward Jack Riewoldt.

The Tigers have enough talent to once again suggest they can be a genuine top-eight contender if everything goes well.

Their fixture draw presents constant hurdles to Hardwick and his Tigers realising that though.

Richmond’s season could be shot to pieces without some unexpected early wins.

After a prospective horror start, Hardwick and his Tigers also hit a bracket of dangerous outings from Rounds 7 through to 11 against Sydney, Essendon and Hawthorn at the MCG, St Kilda at Etihad and Fremantle back at the “G”.

It’s an engagement with new chums Greater Western Sydney at Skoda Stadium that offers a respite before the Tigers take their mid-schedule bye break over Round 13.

It could be all over for the Tigers if they sit among the ladder’s bottom runs with a handful of wins.

http://www.sportsnewsfirst.com.au/articles/2012/02/16/blowtorch-on-damien-hardwick/

[Dubstep Dookie]

Kim Hagdorn is the Damien Barrett of the 2010's.

Couldnt play cricket to save himself and is four fifths of eff all as a sports journalist.

[yellowandback]

And here I was thinking our mate torch was getting all intimate with dimma

[Willy]

 

[Eat_em_Alive]

This article is a wankfest
Really... These journos read these forums.. Cut and paste and voila here's an article.
We do it to ourselves I tell ya

[WilliamPowell]

This article is a wankfest
Really... These journos read these forums.. Cut and paste and boila here's an article.

Well it has come from "sports news first" who are about a accurate as any of my tee shots in golf and last time I player gold in Pambula I hit a Kangaroo 

We do it to ourselves I tell ya

And we do bring alot of it on ourselves no doubt about it

[Eat_em_Alive]

WP, the next article to come out of the press will read "richmond football club asks themselves, who else is better than Damien Hardwick?"

LOL if that happens 

[Go Richo 12]

I can't believe they pulled the old "since the 1982 grand final Richmond has only played finals twice" chestnut. Don't often hear that line

[gerkin greg]

Well it has come from "sports news first" who are about a accurate as any of my tee shots in golf and last time I player gold in Pambula I hit a Kangaroo 

 

That takes some skill

[Stripes]

A lot of cliques in that article and rubbish speculation regarding Malthouse but there is some merit to his assessment of our season. The first half of the year does look particularly nasty. For whatever reason we always seem to play the big clubs straight up. This is never a good lead in to the season - probably is financially though. The year looks tough - most teams appear better placed.

I'm looking forward to seeing how we perform against the best early on.

[Gargoyle]

This verbal mastubator, Kim (isn't that a girl's name?) Hagdorn, with this deceptively negative article about us is obviously another attempt by the anti-tiger press to ferment discontent and friction within our club.
He is obviously bereft of any sort of news to write about, so he is trying through this article to create some headlines at our expense.
He is just another loser journo who demands attention and will try anything to get it, including creating problems where none currently exist.
Tosser.

[rogerd3]

Oh Dear Kim you really havent changed since my days of living in perth
reading your dribble is just wasting space.

[tiga]

OE can you stop posting the crap that this guy puts out! Its tantamount to trolling!

Reported 

[The Big Richo]

The only problem I can see with the article is it should be Roos not Malthouse.

[one-eyed]

No heat on Tiger coach Damien Hardwick

    by: Michael Warner
    From: Herald Sun
    February 21, 2012

RICHMOND midfielder Trent Cotchin says Damien Hardwick is unfazed about the speculation surrounding his coaching contract.

"I think if you spoke to Dimma, there's not a lot of pressure on him," Cotchin said from the club's Mildura community camp yesterday.

"If we play to the way that he's instructing us to, along with the other assistant coaches, I don't think we'll have any issues with competing with the top teams.

"I think that's a matter (Hardwick's contract) that the club will handle. It's out of the players' hands, and he's doing the best he can and we're trying to follow him the best we can."

Hardwick's three-year coaching deal expires at season's end. President Gary March said this month a process was in place to review his contract situation.

Cotchin said the Tigers showed they were on the right track in Friday's NAB Cup matches against Hawthorn and North Melbourne.

"We were really excited about some of the things we were able to do," he said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/no-heat-on-tiger-coach-damien-hardwick/story-e6frf9jf-1226276397702