Hardwick was ‘too young’ for top jobGLENN McFARLANE
Herald Sun
6 Sept. 2016DAMIEN Hardwick believes in hindsight he was “too young” for the Richmond senior coaching job when he took it on as 37-year-old, but says the experiences have steeled him for the complexities of the role.
Hardwick, now 44, features alongside West Coast’s Adam Simpson, Western Bulldogs’ Luke Beveridge, Greater Western Sydney’s Leon Cameron and Carlton’s Brendon Bolton in The Graduates, a Fox Footy special on the AFL coaches who were formerly assistants to Hawthorn’s Alastair Clarkson, which screens on Tuesday at 9pm.
“I look back on it, and I can’t remember exactly what age I was when I got the Richmond job, but it was too young,” Hardwick said.
“I had only been (an assistant) coach for five years. I look back and you were half embarrassed about how little you actually knew.”
Damien Hardwick says he was too young when he was appointed coach of Richmond. Picture: Getty Images
Hardwick admitted he was still working on his relationship building within the club, saying it was still a work-in-progress after seven seasons at the helm.
“You can have all the great ideas, you can be the best at this and the best at that, but the reality is the forging of relationships at a football club (is so important),” he said.
“I am not overly a people person ... it is something that I think I have got better at, and I still have to get better at after all these years.
“If you get people who want to play for you, work for you, and inspire you, you are in a pretty good trajectory, I reckon.”
Hardwick, who has two years remaining on his contract after missing the finals following three successive elimination final exits, acknowledged dealing with the losses sometimes left him “inconsolable.”
“I used to think I used to feel a loss as an assistant coach ... (but) magnify that by 10 as a senior coach,” he said. “You are inconsolable after a loss.”
“I call it a man cave, where I go and into this state where for 12 hours you just sit there and you are basically rocking in a chair for a period of time, and then you move on.”
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