King: You can’t be serious DimmaJustin Talent
SEN
20 Aug 2016, 05:59PMRichmond coach Damien Hardwick’s comments that the Tigers have already been rebuilding for two years have been rubbished by David King.
King, who was present at the interview with the embattled senior coach on Fox Footy’s On the Couch, says that he wished he had pressed Hardwick further over the incredulous statement, describing it as “haphazard messaging”.
“I would have loved to have said ‘You have coached this club for seven years. Your first three were a complete rebuild… I understand the difficulty he had for those first three years. Three years in you get your list that you’re sort of looking for, the foundation of a rebuild is done. Then you’ve got 18 months of genuine education, forming the model of how you want to play and manufacturing the talent into a system,” King said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“He’s saying at the end of that two year period, he started to rebuild? They played a final at the end of that year, got beaten by Carlton. I found that a really strange comment in hindsight. I wish I had have said ‘you can’t be serious. That after three years of rebuild and then two years of Damien Hardwick, they’re rebuilding again?’
“I’ve heard so many different stories out of Richmond, that the supporters wouldn’t handle an eight-year rebuild, but if you’re doing it after five, what’s the difference?’
King says that Richmond’s recruitment policy during these supposed rebuilding years also contradicts the under-fire coach’s comments, with the controversial choice to recruit Chris Yarran at the loss of second-round draft picks not the only decision placed under scrutiny.
“Taylor Hunt, Jacob Townsend, they’re not part of a rebuild. They’re core depth players and you can’t be getting those guys in while you’re regenerating,” he said.
Despite Anthony Hudson reminding King that both players came to the club at little to no cost, King believes that the selection of these players in the Richmond senior team has set back the side’s emerging talent and that the loss of late draft picks may have also hurt them in the long run.
“You’ve still got them there, you’ve still got to give them opportunities, you’ve still got to play them,” the Fox Footy analyst said.
“You don’t get the wildcard pick. We’ve got some unbelievable talent running around at the Adelaide Crows at the moment that were pick 60, pick 80, rookie list picks, they’re unbelievable talent. I just think you need to back your recruiters in.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/afl/08-16/king-you-can-t-be-serious-dimma#wk4ghLA8EjoyhVY7.97
