Hardwick: Tigers were 'embarrassed' and guilty of 'dumb' footballJon Pierik
The Age
May 1, 2016Seething Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says the Tigers "embarrassed ourselves", lost dignity and played "dumb" football in a dispiriting six-goal loss to Port Adelaide which appears to have all but ended their hopes of making the finals.
The Tigers dropped their fifth-straight clash at the MCG on Saturday night and now face the prospect of tackling an angry Hawthorn side on Friday hurting after their own humbling defeat to Greater Western Sydney earlier on Saturday.
The Tigers' post-mortem began quickly when Hardwick pulled skipper Trent Cotchin and the team leaders behind closed doors for five minutes before hauling in the rest of the team. The meeting, also attended by chief executive Brendon Gale and head of football Dan Richardson, then lasted for another 10 minutes.
In a damning appraisal of his team's performance, Hardwick said the players were unable to execute their game plan at any stage.
"We couldn't get any phase of our game up and going at all night. We were beaten around — probably within the contest we were okay — but beaten outside through spread, offensively couldn't get anything up and going, had no run off half-back, bombing the ball inside 50. (We) had a plan in place but at no stage did we actually put that plan in place," he said.
Asked if the players had been guilty of "dumb" football, he replied: "Yeah, dumb is an interesting comment – yeah, probably was, really."
The Tigers had been expected to at least challenge for a top-eight berth this season after three-straight elimination-final defeats but the season has gone horribly wrong.
Hardwick, set for another week under intense media and public spotlight, challenged the Tigers to regain their "dignity" against the Hawks.
"We have a big game – Friday-night footy versus Hawthorn. We really embarrassed ourselves tonight I thought with the way we played. We have got to bounce back and play with some dignity next week because, at the moment, we are well short of where we need to be," he said.
"We are disappointed with our performance. As a club, we are disappointed with what we are presenting to our fans and we have to regain some ... have got to get back on track."
Hardwick said he had used the team meeting to "just go through the game and just where it unfolded".
"We thought we wanted to play a certain way and it just didn't come to fruition at any stage. Port Adelaide, to their credit, were pretty good... it probably looked like two sides that were not quite at their best tonight but they were good enough at the right times to get a result," he said.
"The easy thing is to rant and rave. It's the methodical message you have to look for to get your boys back on track. The effort is there – we are just not good enough at the moment.
"We are not executing the things we know and should do. We are missing kicks, missing handballs, missing tackles, just the fundamentals of the game that are simple.
"Things that a local football side should be doing, we are not doing. Execution is such a key component of this game that if you don't do it properly, you get burnt. We will go through it again.
"It has been a common trend. We are inexperienced in certain areas but so were they. It's not a youthful thing – we are just not quite good enough at the moment."
The Tigers have rebounded from poor starts in the past three seasons — they were 2-4 in 2013, 3-10 in 2014 and 3-3 last year — to regain momentum and make the finals. But only one team since 1994 has started the campaign 1-5 and featured in September.
"I have been thinking each game is season-defining at the moment. The competition is so even. We just have to worry about getting the four points, and don't worry about putting the games on the line and all that sort of stuff," Hardwick said.
"Our players have just got to, our club in general just has to bounce back and play some respectable football which we are capable of playing but we haven't seen it."
The Tigers missed suspended All-Australian defender Alex Rance, while Hardwick said the absence of injured pair Nick Vlastuin and Dylan Grimes also hurt.
They were down to three men on the bench early, after Kane Lambert was taken to hospital with a suspected punctured lung.
Skipper Trent Cotchin had a subdued night, finishing with 19 disposals, but Dustin Martin was superb (31 disposals, 16 contested, seven inside 50s) while Brett Deledio was strong in his first game of the season after recovering from a quad injury.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-v-port-adelaide-tigers-coach-damien-hardwick-says-they-were-embarrassed-and-guilty-of-dumb-football-20160430-goj40p.html
