Damien Hardwick says suspended Richmond duo Tyrone Vickery and Reece Conca doing it toughJon Ralph
Herald-Sun
August 23, 2014 9:50PMRICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says Tyrone Vickery was so traumatised by his hit on Dean Cox he had to be counselled at half-time to keep playing.
Hardwick said Reece Conca, whose hit on Devon Smith was labelled by AFL boss Gillon McLachlan as “appalling”, had also battled since his suspension with his family verbally targeted.
The brutal hits by the pair were not condoned by Hardwick, but he said they had more than learnt their lesson since their suspensions given the fallout.
Conca is an emergency but could still come in as a late change for sore forward Dustin Martin today, while Vickery is available next week after his four-week ban.
“We want our guys playing tough, hard footy but we understand there are rules to abide by,’’ Hardwick said.
“It’s funny the knock-on effect of those two players, Ty at half time was really traumatised by it to the point where I had to go into the rooms and console him and say, “It’s done. You are going to cop your fair whack and you deserve it but we need you to contribute in the second half”.
“People often don’t see that. Ty was really remorseful but it also shook him up.
“Reece is the same, we are not looking for sympathy, he did a ridiculous thing and he could have caused serious injury to Devon Smith but he was really traumatised by his actions.
“He was embarrassed by it, his parents in Perth copped a lot of flak and it’s really out of character for those guys.”
The Tigers take on St Kilda today aware they still need to win the last two games of the year to sneak into September.
Hardwick lauded the leadership of Trent Cotchin, who he said had emerged from the dark days of those early season losses to grab the playing list by the scruff of the neck.
In an interview for today’s Fox Footy pre-match show he said the Tigers had made big advances even if they finished ninth like so often before.
“We spoke about it this week. We think we have had a better year from a learning point of view this year to last year, we are pleased where we are at,’’ he said.
“We know the majority of our young talent is 25 and under and we are only going to get better.
“We have got a really young spine, we still feel our best footy is well and truly in front of us. Whether we finish short this year, from an overall perspective we are rally proud of our footy club because we have been able to dig ourselves of the hole we made for ourselves. We have hung tough and shown there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Tigers have Martin and Cotchin out of contract at the end of next year but Brett Deledio on a long-term deal.
They signed young midfielder Anthony Miles on a two-year deal last week and must secure key talls David Astbury and Ben Griffiths in coming weeks given the desperation of rivals to acquire key talls.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/damien-hardwick-says-suspended-richmond-duo-tyrone-vickery-and-reece-conca-doing-it-tough/story-fndv8t7m-1227034471568
