Sack Hardwick [merged]

[Judge Roughneck]

Ifchimp has injury hr should not be playing

[Hank44]

If we can not start playing 1-on-1 football at some point we aren't going anywhere. We certainly never zone off and fill any holes in defence. I am no longer confident that Hardwick as the brains to take us forward.

Now he says we have good players to come back in and reverts straight to the injuries with Vickery and Ivan.

[tony_montana]

If we can not start playing 1-on-1 football at some point we aren't going anywhere. We certainly never zone off and fill any holes in defence. I am no longer confident that Hardwick as the brains to take us forward.

Now he says we have good players to come back in and reverts straight to the injuries with Vickery and Ivan.

The thing is we've gone the hawks model of playing a zone and pressing game, unfortunately it looks like it just hasnt been taken by the players which is concerning. You continually see players still arent that well drilled, you contantly see 2 players going to guard the same space, by the time one realises he should go elsewhere the opposition has sliced through us.  I've been saying it since round 1, looks like the balance between guarding space and going at the contest hard isnt quite right, I hope it gets fine tuned pretty quick bc good sides will continue to take us apart.

[TigerTimeII]

HARDWICK IS NOT THE MAN TO TAKE US FWD
TOO SOFT
TOO STUPID

[Penelope]

If we can not start playing 1-on-1 football at some point we aren't going anywhere. We certainly never zone off and fill any holes in defence. I am no longer confident that Hardwick as the brains to take us forward.

Now he says we have good players to come back in and reverts straight to the injuries with Vickery and Ivan.

The thing is we've gone the hawks model of playing a zone and pressing game, unfortunately it looks like it just hasnt been taken by the players which is concerning. You continually see players still arent that well drilled, you contantly see 2 players going to guard the same space, by the time one realises he should go elsewhere the opposition has sliced through us.  I've been saying it since round 1, looks like the balance between guarding space and going at the contest hard isnt quite right, I hope it gets fine tuned pretty quick bc good sides will continue to take us apart.

i find this particularly disturbing, although it answers a few questions

[tdy]

Against Freo I felt that they filled space one kick down play much better than we did.

Against Geelong I felt we positioned around the pack poorly (Note I only saw the third quarter) and they out muscled us.
In general I am somewhat concerned with us being out muscled,  Geelong are a very large side but we have been adding weight and shouldn't be being out muscled.
They also tended to get more players to the fall of the ball during that quarter.  Maybe they just played better.

Still saying all that its a much better performance than 4 or 5 years ago when they were clobbering us by 100 pts.  We are on the right track its just been a terrible time to rebuild and we're not there yet by any step of the imagination.

[Judge Roughneck]

157 or 159 

[unplugged]

We beat two bottom 4 sides, st kilda and western bulldogs and fluked a win against Carlton. Hardwick almost cost us that win by going ultra defensive.  The only thing that saved us was Yarran couldn't kick straight.

Our list has improved, our facilities have improved, our finances have improved, our football department spending has improved, our coaching and game plan hasn't. 

People who put blind faith in Hardwick and play up "the coach doesn't matter" line should have a look at Port from Primus to Hinkley.  This is Hardwicks 4th year and he was an assistance for a fair period of time as well.  If he hasn't been able to compete on match day by now, its not likely he ever will.  If he hasn't been able to drill into players how to win a close game when we are in front by now, what is his purpose?

Need to come up with a succession plan.  We might make the finals because of the unevenness of the competition at the bottom end, but Hardwick isn't the coach that will bring us our next flag.

[1965]

 

[gerkin greg]

 

[tigs2011]

 

 

[rogerd3]

We beat two bottom 4 sides, st kilda and western bulldogs and fluked a win against Carlton. Hardwick almost cost us that win by going ultra defensive.  The only thing that saved us was Yarran couldn't kick straight.

Our list has improved, our facilities have improved, our finances have improved, our football department spending has improved, our coaching and game plan hasn't. 

People who put blind faith in Hardwick and play up "the coach doesn't matter" line should have a look at Port from Primus to Hinkley.  This is Hardwicks 4th year and he was an assistance for a fair period of time as well.  If he hasn't been able to compete on match day by now, its not likely he ever will.  If he hasn't been able to drill into players how to win a close game when we are in front by now, what is his purpose?

Need to come up with a succession plan.  We might make the finals because of the unevenness of the competition at the bottom end, but Hardwick isn't the coach that will bring us our next flag.

I would say if Stiffy is on the chopping block wouldn't the assistants be as well?

[tony_montana]

We beat two bottom 4 sides, st kilda and western bulldogs and fluked a win against Carlton. Hardwick almost cost us that win by going ultra defensive.  The only thing that saved us was Yarran couldn't kick straight.

Our list has improved, our facilities have improved, our finances have improved, our football department spending has improved, our coaching and game plan hasn't. 

People who put blind faith in Hardwick and play up "the coach doesn't matter" line should have a look at Port from Primus to Hinkley.  This is Hardwicks 4th year and he was an assistance for a fair period of time as well.  If he hasn't been able to compete on match day by now, its not likely he ever will.  If he hasn't been able to drill into players how to win a close game when we are in front by now, what is his purpose?

Need to come up with a succession plan.  We might make the finals because of the unevenness of the competition at the bottom end, but Hardwick isn't the coach that will bring us our next flag.

I dont know if Dimma is the one who will get us our next flag either, that will be determined by the end of his current contract (next year), but he's done a fine job rebuilding us from scratch in the time he's been here. We'll have to wait and see, but calling for a succession plan now is a bit premature. We'll know a lot more by seasons end and should be confirmed mid year next year one way or another

I've always said the hard part starts now(2013) when there is a bit of expectation in the air.

[torch]

We beat two bottom 4 sides, st kilda and western bulldogs and fluked a win against Carlton. Hardwick almost cost us that win by going ultra defensive.  The only thing that saved us was Yarran couldn't kick straight.

Our list has improved, our facilities have improved, our finances have improved, our football department spending has improved, our coaching and game plan hasn't. 

People who put blind faith in Hardwick and play up "the coach doesn't matter" line should have a look at Port from Primus to Hinkley.  This is Hardwicks 4th year and he was an assistance for a fair period of time as well.  If he hasn't been able to compete on match day by now, its not likely he ever will. If he hasn't been able to drill into players how to win a close game when we are in front by now, what is his purpose?

Need to come up with a succession plan. We might make the finals because of the unevenness of the competition at the bottom end, but Hardwick isn't the coach that will bring us our next flag.

100% Spot On! 

[YellowandBlackBlood]

Everybody saying we should sack Hardwick need to have their heads read.

This is the same attitude that has kept the team in the lower regions of the ladder for 30 years.

Can you understand that it is a personnel problem at Richmond, not a coaching problem?

It does't matter if you have the leading Professor in Education in the world if you give them a class full of severely autistic children then they will not produce rocket scientists!

Unfortunately, for Hardwick, he came in and cleaned out as much as was contractually possible and then began the long road of team rebuilding. This was as little as just over 3 years ago.  In the time we spent near the bottom, we had to put up with one pick equivalent to a mid 20's pick because of GC concessions. The next year he had to endure similar problems with GWS's concessions.  Last year we had pick 9 as well as putting up with compensation picks. 

Now I want to ask all the smarties here, how would he be expected to have a top 4 team or even a top 8 team with certainty under these conditions.

I think he has done a remarkable job in making us competitive.  Other clubs like Melbourne who many in the industry placed ahead of us in 2009, are a lot worse off despite having better draft choice selections.  Our young guns have had no role models to copy in the team, something that Geelong/Hawthorn/Collingwood youngsters have in bucket loads.  We didn't ever tank like a West Coast. We haven't even had as good selections as Port (who by the way still have players in the team with finals experience).

So you see, blaming Hardwick on him being unable to drill players on how to win a close game is unfair.  If you've been to training, a lot of effort has gone into defence.  If the players are not good enough, Hardwick will have to slowly get rid of them and replace them. This takes time.  We need another two years before our leaders have the experience and hardness to pull the new lot of 22 to 24 year olds along for the ride.  In the mean time hopefully we will be replenishing our 18 to 22 year olds through drafts and development.

Get off Hardwick's back!!!!