Post-match media conference: Proud Hardwick has 'absolute belief' in Tigers

[one-eyed]

Dimma's post-match presser:

VIDEO: http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2017-05-20/round-9-hardwick-postmatch

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Proud Hardwick has 'absolute belief' in Tigers

David Sygall 
afl.com.au
May 20, 2017 8:57 PM

CRITICS will likely line up Richmond after yet another close loss, but coach Damien Hardwick will promote a glass half-full mindset as he helps his side overcome the psychological damage of the past fortnight.

Hardwick labelled the gut-wrenching three-point loss to Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium on Saturday “heartbreaking”. Even opposing coach Leon Cameron graciously declared the Tigers the better team on the night.

Nevertheless, surrendering two matches on the trot in the final unforgiving seconds can lead even the most experienced heads to wonder what is going on.

“You can look at it both ways - we’ve lost to the Bulldogs by a kick, we’ve lost to GWS by a kick,” Hardwick said.

“I walk away as a coach incredibly proud of our boys. I think they’ve taken it up to every side they’ve played - we had that one bad game versus Adelaide … our players, when they come to play, they give great effort, great intent.

“I walk away really disappointed we lost. We should have won, no doubt about that, but I thought the intensity and effort our guys gave was really high.”

A fateful score review - which ruled that debutant Shai Bolton’s late snapped goal was in fact touched, thereby ruling it a behind - ended up with Jeremy Cameron scoring the winning goal at the other end about 90 seconds later. The Tigers had led the entire match to that point.

“We’ll certainly focus on that last play, that last couple of minutes,” he said.

“We probably found that we were attacking feverishly - we had 16 inside 50s. We just couldn’t quite capitalise and get that shot on goal. We kicked five behinds in the last quarter. If we kicked goals, it was probably over.

“Unfortunately our conversion let us down and then defensive set-up behind the ball let us down.

“Half our forward line are teenagers. We’ve got Jack Riewoldt one out, they’ve got [Jon] Patton, Cameron, [Rory] Lobb. I’ve got young players playing up there, doing their absolute best. I thought they battled as hard as they could for as long as they could, but just probably fell out of range at the end.”

Hardwick said he had “absolute belief” in his playing list.

“They’re a lot better than we’ve had before. As I’ve said previously, our best footy’s still in front of us.

“We’ve got young, developing players who are going to get better as the year progresses, we’ve got some players that we’re looking forward to coming back in at some stage.

“We’ll get there again. We have to.”

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-20/damien-hardwick-postmatch

[one-eyed]

"It's tough, it's heart breaking to be honest," Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said.

"Our players gave great intent, great effort, we just couldn't close out the game. We had 60 inside 50s, win contested ball, win forward half turnovers, win the pressure, just didn't get the result.

"We've got young players playing up there doing their absolute best. I thought they battled as hard as they could for as long as they could, just probably fell out of range towards the end.

"We've lost to the Bulldogs by a kick, we've lost to GWS by a kick. I walk away as a coach incredibly proud of our boys.

"I look at them, I think they've taken it up to every side they've played, we had that one bad game verse Adelaide.

"I walk away really disappointed, we should've won there's no doubt about that, but I thought the intensity and effort our guys gave was really high."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-report/gws-giants-storm-home-to-defeat-richmond-20170520-gw9dt6.html

“We let ourselves down badly with that last play and that’s all you get remembered for, unfortunately,” Hardwick said.

“It’s not my job to run the score review. I wish I did.

“We’ll certainly focus on that last play, that last couple of minutes. “You learn a lot from these sort of losses.”

The Tigers could only blame themselves for the staggering surrender. They managed just 4.14 after kicking 6.1 early, with Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin missing set shots they’d so often convert.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/damien-hardwick-proud-of-his-players-after-heartbreaking-loss-to-gws/news-story/3917d95a2bab0462f22bfa1fcecbd21f

[Ruanaidh]

I just wish he'd "walk away" and keep going! It wasnt the near misses or 'bad luck' that cost us the game or others over the last 5 years. In every game we were in a winning position and coughed it up due to a lack of intent and planning. These 2 characteristics are the responsibility of a 'coach' to instill and develop.

I said years ago that the RFC is more about memberships than premierships. Our accursed malaise will continue until that changes.

[pmac21]

Here he goes again with the stats about us being young by our forward line being teenagers. 
Poor excuses.

[one-eyed]

Robbo on SEN just before said Hardwick has to preach positives to the players rather than go ape at them because most of what Richmond is doing is really good. If he goes off at them over a few poor minutes then that could harm the confidence that is resulting in the majority of things the Tigers are doing well. Dimma should turn these narrow defeats into a real positive - "Guys, if we can just fix up these couple of things we are doing wrong then we know we'll be on our way because 'this' is good, 'this' is good, and 'this' is good".

[Harry]

He knows if he loses the players he is gone.  He's in job survival mode.  Stuff him and the players with this softly softly approach positive reinforcement crap.  Is it any wonder we crumble under pressure when we have leaders who praise such weak efforts.  What a weak excuse of a club we are when we pamper the players so we don't upset them and ruin any progress we've made.  What stuffing progress? Bunch of weak minded players lead by a soft coach and amateur administration.  Oh please don't yell at me or I might lose my will to compete.  stuff me.  Proud of the boys against a depleted out of form side leading by 31 points.  FMD.  we'll learn from this.  Start doing something about it FFS.

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Here he goes again with the stats about us being young by our forward line being teenagers. 
Poor excuses.

Always goes straight to his stats, as though he wants to prove that his knowledge of the coaching game was born of moneyballing and no basic understanding of what he needed to get out of HIMSELF.

[pmac21]

Geez he needs a win Saturday night.  All will be forgiven.  Draw doesn't look too bad after Bombers. 

[(•))(©™]

Come on.
Who wants a coach that has to wait for a favourable run in the draw.

That right there is the reason we are where we are.

[🏅Dooks]

Geez he needs a win Saturday night.  All will be forgiven.

All 7 years?

Ah no. Never.

[one-eyed]

'Damien, there is nothing for you or your players to be proud of'

Jack McAnespie
sportingnews.com
22 May 2017

Renowned football journalist Damian Barrett has absolutely slammed the Richmond Football Club, in response to comments coach Damien Hardwick made following his side’s loss to the Giants on the weekend.

The Tigers, who led against the premiership favourites for the majority of the night on Saturday, went down in the dying moments after losing to the Dockers after the siren the week before.

Hardwick said he was proud of his players following the club’s loss at Spotless Stadium on the weekend, however Barrett took the Tigers coach to task over the wording.

“I would not be using the word ‘proud’ in any context after the past fortnight of football if I’m Damien Hardwick,” Barrett told Triple M’s Rush Hour on Monday afternoon.

“And I’d be going a step further if I’m Richmond Football Club CEO Brendon Gale, just calling Damien Hardwick in and say, ‘Damien, there is nothing for you or your players to be proud of in the last two weeks’.

“And I mean that quite seriously because they are in the throes of yet again throwing away a season of footy with their ineptitude and their inability to handle the tense situation.”

After going undefeated in the first five rounds of the season, the Tigers have now slid to seventh on the ladder after dropping their next four games.

http://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/damien-there-is-nothing-for-you-or-your-players-to-be-proud-of-afl-australian-football-league-richmond-tigers-damien-hardwick/1stjtlxziorx91xg340dnylie0

[one-eyed]

Critics take aim at Tigers coach Damien Hardwick over loss to GWS

By Sacha Mirzabegian
WWOS
23 May 2017

Footy Classified’s panellist Caroline Wilson has questioned why Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was proud of his side after capitulating to GWS on the weekend.

The Giants booted the final six goals of the game making the most of Richmond’s final-quarter melt down.

The Tigers had a number of chances to win the match. Jack Riewoldt kicked a set shot into the goalpost from only 15 metres out while Jason Castagna and Dustin Martin also missed from close range with set shot attempts late in the game.

The Tigers lost after the siren last week against Fremantle, and lost in even more heartbreaking circumstances to the Bulldogs the week before.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was philosophical after the loss to GWS.

“You can look at it both ways - we’ve lost to the Bulldogs by a kick, we’ve lost to GWS by a kick,” Hardwick said.

“I walk away as a coach incredibly proud of our boys. I think they’ve taken it up to every side they’ve played - we had that one bad game versus Adelaide … our players, when they come to play, they give great effort, great intent.

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Speaking on Footy Classifieds, Wilson said she had a problem with the Tigers coach expressing pride over his side’s performance against GWS.

“Richmond are a laughing stock, everyone’s laughing at them” she said.

“The coach made some comments about the fact that he was proud of the team. I think they’d be absolutely shattered that this club are being laughed at and are so unrespected that people thought it was funny.”

“It was clearly not what supporters wanted to hear and I think the football community as a whole heard that and went, are you kidding? They were six goals up against one of the premiership favourites, how on earth did they not win that game?”.

Fellow panellist Gary Lyon was asked if he thought the Tigers were chokers.

“Of course. They didn’t get it right when it mattered most. I know Hardwick’s public utterances but I hope it was different behind closed doors, I doubt very much he’d be saying the same thing”.

http://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/05/23/15/30/critics-take-aim-at-richmond-coach-damien-hardwick-after-expressing-pride-after-tigers-loss-to-gws

[(•))(©™]

"I walk away as a coach incredibly proud of our boys."

We'd be happy if you just walked away as a coach.

[Diocletian]

Then we could finally be proud of him....