Damien Hardwick showcases his tactical nous in Richmond’s ugly win over CarltonJune 25, 2017 6:21pm
Riley Beveridge
FOX SPORTSA TIGER can change its stripes.
And Damien Hardwick is the living proof.
In an AFL season that has given fans a lesson in not counting your chicks before they hatch, the once besieged Tiger coach has taught us to never write things off.
Such has been Richmond’s improvement this season, it’s easy to forget that the failed ‘Focus on Footy’ board coup – that run with the promise of reviewing Hardwick’s position as head coach – did so less than 12 months ago.
How quickly things can change. And how quickly Hardwick himself has changed.
On Sunday afternoon, in an unfashionable 26-point victory over Carlton at the MCG, Hardwick demonstrated exactly how pragmatic he could be.
A feature of Carlton’s season under promising young coach Brendon Bolton has been its ability to frustrate the life out of its opponents.
Flag fancies, finals hopefuls or those more focused on draft picks, the Blues have picked apart almost every opponent and have hardly ever been blown away.
But on Sunday, the tables were turned on the Blues.
Carlton was effectively out-Carlton’d.
Having dismantled both expansion sides over the last fortnight, the side’s defeat on Sunday was a case of the Blues being handed a taste of their own medicine.
Hardwick had studied how Bolton had undone rival sides – and then used those same methods to the detriment of his fellow Alastair Clarkson pupil.
The Tigers allowed the Blues the ball – but blocked off all channels to attack.
They defended the switch successfully, created space forward of the ball to make Carlton’s dangerous in-form half backs accountable and then chopped off all hack kicks out of stoppages.
It forced Carlton to be precise in possession.
And it made Richmond lethal on the counter attack whenever they weren’t.
Four of Richmond’s five goals in the first half were created in the defensive 50.
It was a pattern that continued after the break, with the Blues repeatedly punished for turning the ball over as they entered their forward arc.
Such a style of football is by no means sustainable.
But on Sunday, it didn’t have to be.
Hardwick had engineered a game plan to beat Carlton – and perhaps only against Carlton could such tactics have worked so successfully.
But while the measures employed equated to an ugly type of match – and hardly one that will be remembered in a season that has provided highlight after highlight – it was perhaps a defining one for Hardwick’s future at the club.
The one lingering question mark that Hardwick hasn’t yet eradicated is the ever-present mental fragilities that hover like a dark cloud over Punt Road.
And again, they reared their ugly head at times at the MCG.
‘Uh oh’, the Tiger faithful must have thought at stages. ‘We’ve been here before.’
A few points up, late in the match. A kick from the goal line that goes out on the full, a dropped chest mark that trickles out of bounds.
That’s where the doubt starts.
But a four goals to two final quarter killed the match as a contest and put the Tigers back in the frame for an unlikely top-four berth.
Ultimately, the 26-point win was just reward for the effort Richmond has displayed in every match this season – even its narrow defeats.
It was also just reward for Hardwick’s pragmatic – if not always entertaining – game from the coaches’ box.
From leading the ‘Sack Race’, to a leading candidate for Coach of the Year.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/live-afl-round-14-richmond-v-carlton/news-story/deaa7e116f08a514401a441385cb4363
