Thoughts on Hardwick now ??

[yandb]

Great team manager lousy tactician.

Balme cleaned out most of his assistants last season. (he picked his assistants)

Balme brings in a new group of assitants who are tactically savvy.

Hardwick manages the team, the assistants the tactics players play to their strengths win win win.

[Dougeytherichmondfan]

Great team manager lousy tactician.

Balme cleaned out most of his assistants last season. (he picked his assistants)

Balme brings in a new group of assitants who are tactically savvy.

Hardwick manages the team, the assistants the tactics players play to their strengths win win win.

Disagree with this sentiment which is very apparent in this thread. I think he's about the best team manager in the competition but he's a very capable tactician. You just don't win flags unless you can read the game at an elite level.

Proved it in the grand final and throughout this year. I think he was, like many of the players in previous years, coaching to a standard and a plan that was what he felt was a premiership prototype. It was okay, but didn't get us further than the first round of the finals. Goes back and coaches how he wants to coach (and how the players want to play) and the rest is history. His team selection was fantastic for most of the year. Finding guys like Townsend and Graham - masterstrokes.

Flags: The 'Great Tactician' Ross Lyon - 0. Dimma 'Best list I've had' Hardwick - 1 (so far  ).

[lamington]

It is a hard one for me. The fact he has the players on his side is probably the most important thing. Not too different from Beveridge and how it was palpable that all Bulldogs players would.go to war for him.

My knock on Hardwick is I don't think he is a great tactician. Bringing in Hunt and Morris this year made my head explode. His treatment of Miles is appalling.

But he has a premiership in the bag and that is the most important thing and will be part of his legacy . What I will give him is that when he first arrived he did say that the team had to be precise by foot and hard tackling. He went 180 and we had shoddy kicks (Hampson and Letters and Matt Thomas) but then went 180 again with the class of 2017.

I am with Tigerland. Coaching is now a team effort and the coach can no longer be the master motivator/educator/recruiter/developer/strategist like in the past

[mat073]

Not sure Lamington ....

Hunt played 1 game after the opening round .

Morris played 1 game in rd 6

Miles played 5 games but smashed it in the VFL - hes unlucky sure .

If Miles was a casualty of the recruitment of Prestia and Caddy - there were times during the home and away where it seemed ludicrous . However the form displayed by the former Suns during the finals was outstanding. 

Who does Miles come in for ??

[Chuck17]

Inb4 Grigg Chaplin

[Stripes]

Must be a lot of Dimma hating flogs around here struggling this week  After all the hate directed at Dimma for years he has won the clubs its first flag in 37 years! He was voted Coach of the Year along the way by his peers too. He is openly revered and loved by his players, respected by his administrators and praised by the media. Yet if you were to believe all the posts on this forum it was all because of Carcella or Balme or the footstudder - anyone but the head coach.

We all make mistakes and we all had questions last year but maybe, just maybe its time for some around here to admit that he IS a good coach and he DID win us what we have been dreaming of for almost four decades.

Stability, Unity & Trust - that is what won us the 2017 flag not the 'Eat our own' mentality some around here still love to throw out at the first signs of adversity. We won because we supported Gale, O'Neill and Dimma. I pray that people learn a hard lesson from this and finally celebrate our success and those who made it happen.

I want more of this in the future and holding course and supporting the coach is the best way to get it. Dimma - you're a champion!!! 

[Eat_em_Alive]

Well he is no longer halfstep, he is now fullstep  or Dimma to some 

[yandb]

Carracalla brought the game plan with him, Leppitch came up with the forward set up (despite Hardwick's initial opposition)

Without these two important contributions Hardwick would not have even got us to the finals.

[Francois Jackson]

i couldnt give a stuff if the whole thing was orchestrated by Kim Jong-un.

bottom line is we won a stuffin FLAG. Hardwick can write his own cheque in this contract as far as im concerned

[Stripes]

Carracalla brought the game plan with him, Leppitch came up with the forward set up (despite Hardwick's initial opposition)

Without these two important contributions Hardwick would not have even got us to the finals.

No business, no organisation, no team can succeed with only one person doing everything. Richmond is the sum of its parts. We are not successful because of Dusty. We did not win a premiership because of Peggy. We are not the coast of the AFL World because of Gale either. We needed everything working and everyone doing their job to make this happen.'

The age of one man running a team went out not much later than when there was Captain Coaches. The job is too big. Dimma has assistant coaches for a reason. They are their to work with him to allow us to succeed. Good leaders listen to advice and learn from their mistakes. Dimma has done both of these things.

Carcella may have brought in the basis of a game plan but what we have now is unlike anything any other team has. Leppa may have urged Dimma to play another small rather than the second tall but Dimma listened (another sign of great leader).
 
Dimma is not the reason we won the flag but by f&#* he is one of the biggest reasons why we did. Damien Hardwick will always have his name in the record books and at Punt Rd as our 2017 Premiership Coach. That must really give you the sh#$%   

[georgies31]

To be honest I hear treatment of Miles etc yet he wasn't great when he come in the side and like people said who do you drop last 6 games we were so settled.

[lamington]

Considering we dominated the finals series it is very hard for me to consider who you would drop for Miles. I feel like Miles could have come in for Castagna when when he was missing everything. Miles still averaged 4 tackles a game which is higher than Castagna's 3. I don't rate Broad that highly either.

In our loss against Sydney, Geelong, and St Kilda, I felt having Miles would've saved us. I thought it was rough to drop him after the hawthorn win considering George and Caddy miss absolute sitters all the time but ultimately the team was balanced going into finals and that's what will go down in history.

[georgies31]

I rate Broad highly.Gives us flexibility with his size tall and small.Courageous can take a grab,quick and always there to help others.Didn't concede many goals to.Did a fantastic job on Lynch.His kicking will improve.

[Owl]

what garbage, Hardwick still makes the calls from the coaches box, he still dictates the game plan.  Other coaches can suggest stuff and he can take it or leave it and they implement what Hardwick decides on.  He pulled it off, he has excellent assistant coaches and they have put together a premiership.  Give some stuffing credit where it is due ffs

[tony_montana]

I rate Broad highly.Gives us flexibility with his size tall and small.Courageous can take a grab,quick and always there to help others.Didn't concede many goals to.Did a fantastic job on Lynch.His kicking will improve.

Broad was massive this season and the final piece of the premiership defence puzzle. Is as quick as Short but much tougher and taller giving us a lot more flexibility and relief to grimes/Astbury/Rance. Recall him chasing Cameron on the wing and went with him the whole way