Baby steps for a Richmond renaissancePatrick Smith | August 26, 2009
IT seems to have taken an eternity but finally Richmond has its man. Damien Hardwick is the candidate picked to make something happen at Richmond on a grand and permanent scale.
It is a job that has swamped many good men before him.
The last premiership was delivered by Tony Jewell back in 1980. A grand final two years later under Francis Bourke and then preliminary final appearances in 1995 (John Northey) and 2001 (Danny Frawley) have been slim pickings in the 29 years since Kevin Bartlett kicked seven goals and ran further in indulgent celebration than he ever did at training.
The club has been on the brink more than once. In 1990, a tin rattle kept the club alive but the lack of resources made finals football impossible. After that coaches came and went. Premiership gurus Allan Jeans (St Kilda, Hawthorn) and Robert Walls (Carlton) left disenchanted and disappointed, Jeans after a year and Walls after 39 games. Terry Wallace moved on this year before his contract was up.
Rarely has the administration been stable. Between 1999 and 2004 the club had four chief executives. It fumbled its recruiting, too, with the likes of Matthew Pavlich and Lance Franklin ignored in the draft.
Hardwick will lead a new team at Richmond. Brendon Gale has just been named chief executive, Craig Cameron has not long held the reins as general manager of football and Gary March is becoming more comfortable as president. The facilities at Punt Road are being redeveloped. This could be the beginning of a Tiger renaissance.
Previously that has never been said, well, not with any confidence anyway. However, all manner of things appear different this time around. For starters, the club acknowledges it has a lousy list and indications are strong it will prune and trade vigorously. It will get an early enough look at the draft to pick up a polished player.
Hardwick comes highly recommended. When Richmond spoke to Kevin Sheedy to discuss his wish to be considered for the coaching role, the four-time premiership coach said that hardest for him to beat would be Hardwick. While Hardwick has been in coaching roles with Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, he played the bulk of his football under Sheedy at Essendon.
Hardwick will become the fourth former Essendon player to be coaching in the AFL in 2010. Hardwick joins Mark Thompson (Geelong), Dean Bailey (Melbourne) and Mark Harvey (Fremantle) as Sheedy graduates.
Cameron has handled a difficult year with aplomb after a mostly anonymous start as the boss of all things football. The Wallace exit was handled as best it could have been hoped and the selection process for his replacement has been long but it has been particular and thorough. Cameron refused to compromise the selection protocols when other clubs went hunting coaches.
The club is financially secure. Another year, another profit. Better still, the AFL has decided to fund clubs where required to ensure they are all at competition-best standard in football operations. Hardwick should not need to worry about expenditure, unlike grim times when Bartlett, as coach, had no money to secure players or hire training facilities.
Steven Wright has moved on as chief executive because of health reasons but he did well solidifying the club, though he worked silently and in the dark. Gale, his replacement, knows football and he has a Harvard course to say that he should know business, too. As head of the AFL Players Association he did not appear to make a hash of anything.
The new off-field team is in charge of an unusual beast. The recruitment of Ben Cousins at the start of the season shone a stark light on the club's great strengths and weaknesses. Membership jumped - about $700,000 was earned in one game of football alone when the Tigers met Carlton.
But Richmond is not immune to football madness. Rather, sometimes it looks incurable. After winning eight of the final 11 games last season, supporters presumed the appearance of Cousins would see the club stomp into the finals. It became an optimism that crippled the club and one round into the season it had become dysfunctional. Wallace was under hot scrutiny from the humiliating loss to Carlton, the hamstring tear to Cousins and a chomping fan base that was guilty of hallucination rather than anticipation. The crazy dynamics proved unmanageable and a season came to an end before it barely started.
Hardwick, Cameron and Gale are not a bad ticket at all. The trio starts fresh and eager. But such is the lack of skill and depth in the playing list that supporters should expect the new regime to take baby steps. The club is being remade and it must be done patiently, prudently. Hardwick is a good get but one man is not a cure-all. Cousins proved that.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25981828-16957,00.html
