Hardwick's season review (video and summary)

[one-eyed]

VIDEO: Hardwick's season review from Fox Footy:

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/roar%20vision%20archive/tabid/11454/contentid/493941/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

Summary

* Based on wins/losses there's been improvement. From 6 to 8 to 10 and a half wins. Defensively we have improved as have we offensively.

* Based on KPIs we should be a top 6-8 side but that hasn't happened. What's been disappointing for us and our fans is we haven't ticked those boxes in certain games that got us to where we need to be.

* What went wrong? Mid-year started to get the injury bug. In the first 10 rounds we had used the least amount of players and yet within 3 weeks we had used the most. The loss of Vickery, Foley and Grimes and then the suspension of Connors and Martin happened within a 3 week period. In AFL footy that's a significant amount of personnel to go out in one hit. It hurt us and knocked us around a bit. We knew going forward for everything to go right we needed to keep our top players on the park for a large period of time and it just didn't happen for long enough.

* Like the moneyball theory, we can't rest on our laurels when competitors such as Collingwood and West Coast are going to be spending more on their footy departments than we are. So we are going to have to look outside the norm and find personnel that can take us forward. We brought in Blair Hartley from Port Adelaide, Craig Cameron and Francis Jackson who do a wonderful job attracting the talent. Like to say we are very thorough in that area. We look for players who we believe are undervalued at other clubs that we can bring across and add to and fit in within our system. They've shown that's really worked for us so far and it's something we plan to continue on doing moving forward.

* Don't know if stars is the right answer regarding free agency. We've studied free agency say in the NFL and what we've found is the mistake clubs make is going for the big fish. The reality is if you bring in the big fish then a couple (of your own) will go out the other way. So with us it's more about bringing in players that will fit specific needs. If it's a star then that's fantastic but the reality is we aren't going to be able to afford them for one and we just want to bring in role players that fit our system and then draft (our own) talent moreso regarding free agency.

* People pointed out the cost but it was more about the long-term and making a stand as a footy club. No longer do we tolerate that kind of behaviour. Dustin certainly let down his teammates and supporters as a whole but we feel for Dustin to become a better player it's a significant lesson for him to learn and more importantly a significant lesson for our younger players to learn we are reflective of the whole family. One player tarnishes the name of the Richmond footy club then we will come down with a sledgehammer effect.

* Dimma said he would love to say he coached with an outstanding track record but the reality is there's no doubt the players can improve and there's no doubt he can improve as coach. There's been games he has been really disappointed with is own performance. It's easy to point the blame at the players but he has always believed if you lose the game by 80 points then it's a player issue; if you lose a game under two goals then it's a coaching issue. So there's been a few of them (the latter) it's fair to say. The reality is if he doesn't get better as a coach from year to year then he's not the right man for the job. So there's certainly areas he needs to improve in and there's areas our players need to improve in. We've always got to keep getting better and better.

* The art of coaching is teaching. If you're a good communicator and teach the concepts well that comes out on the field. It's something he's tried to bring into all the coaches. They've got to be great communicators for one but they've also got to be able to teach. That's why people say the champions of the game should make great coaches but the reality is they are just freaks as players and they struggle to teach the concepts required to play at AFL level. That's why more coaches are looking outside the box bringing in coaches that have a teaching background and are great communicators. Cause that's the art of it. Forming the relationships and the teaching the concepts is what is going to take this footy club and the AFL forward in general.

* What we need to keep doing is investing in our footy department. There's certain elements of this organisation that we think we've got to get better at. Obviously onfield is one but there's our recruiting structure - we feel we could use more resources in that department to further harness the talent that we are bringing in. Development is another one - we feel at the moment and it's something we are addressing over the course of the offseason, we need a better coach-to-player ratio to make our players better. We need to spend more time on the ground and less time in the classroom. By all means both are important but you need the resources to do both. At the moment we haven't got that. Which is a great upside to this footy side. We've seen a pretty significant step up in our development over the course of 3 years we've been here but we feel with the development structure if we get right it'll be a big step again.

* Richmond's time? Look next year give us an opportunity. There's no doubt we've spoken about previously about the years of transformation. The first two years were going to be about getting 500 games into that 22 and under bracket. We achived that. This year was more about a period of consolidation and getting those players playing together for a sustained period of time. Next year presents us with an opportunity; an opportunity to make the Eight and finally get this club back to finals where we feel we belong. So it starts next year.           

[Penelope]

I'm not too sure about the comment that if you lose by 80 points it's the players and if you lose by a couple of goals its the coach.

It's interesting that he said that we need more resourses in recruiting, yet Jackson has said that he prefers a small team of blokes he has full faith in rather than a large team of recruiters

[bojangles17]

Either  am i but a least he is taking some accountability for the losses, given they were all close defeats, on his basis it was all dimmas fault then, clearly some work to do

[unplugged]

"There's been games he has been really disappointed with is own performance. It's easy to point the blame at the players but he has always believed if you lose the game by 80 points then it's a player issue; if you lose a game under two goals then it's a coaching issue. So there's been a few of them (the latter) it's fair to say."

His match day coaching was pretty horrendous this year.  I see the guilt.  I don't see the solution.....

[bojangles17]

was it, thought it was alright against Sydney and Hawthorn, duh

[unplugged]

was it, thought it was alright against Sydney and Hawthorn, duh

Read what he said.  Lose by under 2 goals, coach issue.  Lose by 80, player issue. Same is true in reverse.  Thrashings of Sydney and Hawthorn weren't close games.  Coach had no impact.  Was all the players.  Find me some close wins to counter all those close losses?

Fact that we couldn't beat gold coast says it all.  So many brownlow points this year.  Playing list is underrated.  Coach highly overrated and doesn't have a clue how to manage a football list.  If the mature age recruits weren't so good and we didn't have a bunch of top 10 draft picks, Hardwick would be taking us to the bottom of the ladder with his match day coaching.  If he was Sydney's coach, they would have struggled to make the finals this year.

[bojangles17]

Ooh well thats all hot air opinion, the bald facts are our performances against top sides suggested we weren't that far off relative to the year before, not too many commentators agreed with that line that close losses were attributed to coach , a year earlier and we weren't within a bulls roar of the top sides, thats a fact jack, no hot air there

[jordie2tivendale]

Truth is our improvment is so  obvious that it doesn't need pointing out
Hardwick is quick to point out his mistakes i really like that about him  name last RFC coach that did that most use excuses

[Coach]

Frawley

[unplugged]

Frawley

Your commentary is priceless.