yeah thats correct re malthouse, i must have been looking at the table cross eyed.
it doesnt change that very few coaches have taken over a club with such an ingrained culture of failure as Richmond had, and had any real success.
It also needs to be taken into consideration that before Hardwick first season there were 8 (9 if you count Polak) delistings 3 retirements and 2 traded out , thats over a quarter of your list and over 100 games of experience. I dont think there was any player on the list who had played AFL finals and for the first three years hardwick effective tanked, sfter stripping the list back a bare core, he was more concerned about getting 500 games of experience into young players than actually winning.
Seriously, i doubt anyone that is saying we were not a basket case sat back at the end of 2009 and thought, " geez, how good is this state of affairs?"
I have doubts he can deliver a premeirship, but he started a long way back and it never ceases to amaze me how once people have made their mind in the negative on someone they outright refuse to see any positve at all