How Damien Hardwick’s shock exit will spin AFL coach merry-go-round, and who’s riding itDavid Zita, Max Laughton and Catherine Healey
Fox Sports
May 22nd, 2023 9:34 pmThe coaching landscape has shifted significantly with news Damien Hardwick will quit as Richmond coach on Tuesday.
Hardwick will quit the club and cease to be the AFL’s longest-serving active coach, having taken on the role in 2010.
There will now be no shortage of contenders to take over one of the biggest jobs in football.
KEN HINKLEYAs the current landscape sits, Ken Hinkley is the only senior coach in the league without a contract beyond 2023.
Port Adelaide has stood firm on its desire to park contract talks until later in the year, despite the Power currently on a seven-match win streak.
Hinkley’s future will now come into sharper focus.
“When a coach leaves a football club and a powerhouse like Richmond, it opens the door for great speculation from here until the end of the year. The first thing that came to our mind was Ken Hinkley at Port Adelaide,” Mark Robinson said on AFL 360.
“He’s out of contract at the end of this year, talks have been parked until August. David Koch, the chairman, is not baulking on those talks.
“Ken Hinkley was chased last year by the Bombers, they probably had a four or five year deal in the making for him. He chose not to be part of that process.
“If he did, he probably would’ve got it, before they went after Brad Scott. What does Richmond do? They put every name down on the board and go ‘right, who’s gettable, who do we go after? I know, let’s make an inquiry into Ken Hinkley.’”
NATHAN BUCKLEYThere will be interest from inside the AFL world for the former Collingwood coach - but is there interest from Nathan Buckley himself?
It’s unclear where Buckley would sit with the Richmond job now up for grabs, however, given they’ve had quite a bit more recent success than, say, the Kangaroos could point to when they came knocking.
At the very least Buckley’s name will be up on a whiteboard at Punt Road come Tuesday afternoon.
THE ASSISTANTSAs we’ve seen in recent years, most notably with ex-Tigers assistant Craig McRae at Collingwood, you don’t need to have been a senior coach before to be a good one.
Daniel Giansiracusa (Essendon) and
Ashley Hansen (Carlton) could look to emulate the feats of McRae and parachute into a top job.
The Tigers already have
Andrew McQualter on the books, and have since 2014. McQualter is the man tipped to get the nod as interim Richmond coach, ahead of his fellow assistants and former AFL coaches
Ben Rutten and
David Teague.
Rutten is only 10 rounds out of a senior job, after he was sensationally sacked by Essendon at the end of the 2022 season before returning to the Tigers where he was an assistant previously.
Teague hasn’t coached at senior level since he was sacked by the Blues in August 2021.
Also still hunting for their first senior role is the likes of
Adem Yze who missed out on the Essendon job last year. Yze was reportedly one of the frontrunners at the Bombers before that job went to Brad Scott.
Former Crows coach
Don Pyke could be ready for a second crack at senior coaching after his time in Adelaide ended in 2019 amid controversy over the club’s pre-season camp.
Justin Leppitsch is another who may be ready to step up once again after 66 games as Brisbane’s head coach more than six years ago.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-news-2023-damien-hardwick-quits-richmond-impact-on-coach-landscape-replacements-contenders-ken-hinkley-adam-simpson/news-story/142d2e620532f9ad0bcaa32ed62fcb31