Is Damien Hardwick the right man to coach Richmond after 2023? (FoxFooty)

[rogerd3]

Will be interesting after the bye.

[Francois Jackson]

IMO if he quits now his legacy would not be as strong. Not the popular opinion but he has a contract and its important he sees it out.

I personally would like him to stay on and see it through beyond 2024. Of course he has nothing to prove, but it would be nice.

[Simonator]

Would like to see dimma appear on tv or radio and answer tough questions

[Gracie]

IMO if he quits now his legacy would not be as strong. Not the popular opinion but he has a contract and its important he sees it out.

I personally would like him to stay on and see it through beyond 2024. Of course he has nothing to prove, but it would be nice.

Depends on where Hardwick sees himself in 5 to 10 years. Still coaching or doing something else? If he is looking to do something else then leave at the end of his current contract.

If he wants to keep coaching then he has the perfect challenge with Richmond to rebuild the list and win more premierships. Depends on his desire to put the energy in and take the knocks that will come his way as he goes through that process.

If he left Richmond then which club would he go to? Port Adelaide as a past premiership player there would be likely

[one-eyed]

‘Spark in his eye’: Tigers great laughs off claims Dimma’s time up after ‘white line fever’ reveal

Max Laughton
Fox Sports
May 4th, 2023 9:10 pm

Richmond great Jack Riewoldt has backed a “combative” Damien Hardwick amid claims the triple premiership coach has lost some of his passion.

The Tigers are languishing in the bottom four having won just one game all season, hitting a low point with last Sunday’s dour loss to Gold Coast.

But Hardwick was firm in his response to the suggestion he’s lost interest at his press conference on Thursday, quipping: “it’s easy to sit there and say those comments when they’re sitting behind a desk – come and say it to my face”.

“Yeah I do (have the passion to coach), it was just one of those games where you couldn’t seem to get anything to go, or anything to work and our players felt that as well, and that’s when you do feel flat.

“Look, did it come across a little bit like that? Yeah it probably did, but the fact of the matter is I was probably feeling like any supporter in this organisation, incredibly flat and frustrated with where we are at.

“But once I sit there in the cold hard light of day and review the tape and work through a few things, I feel a hell of a lot better.”

That sort of energy was exactly what Hardwick has been showing at Punt Road as the Tigers plot a path back into finals contention, according to Riewoldt.

“I like this version of Dimma - the combative style,” the champion forward said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 Plus.

“There’s a coaching version, and then he starts to come back to a little bit of the playing version of Damien Hardwick.

“We’re putting it right on the agenda we’re not playing the football we’d like to play; we’re 1-5, obviously played finals last year, yes we’ve been in games but we haven’t been able to win them. So a big game for us come Saturday (vs West Coast).”

Hardwick is the longest-serving coach in the AFL, having taken the helm at Richmond ahead of the 2010 season, and with the opening seven rounds of the season suggesting a decline is on the cards, many have asked whether his time is up.

But Riewoldt said: “I don’t know whether any coach has a certain (length of) tenure.

“People have different views - Kevin Sheedy coached for I think 26 years at Essendon. There’s a time and a finish on every coach’s career.

“Now I’ve been asked this question a little bit, does Dimma seem as interested? Because now the narrative is it’s time to move him along.

“He is really, really invested at the moment. You can just see that little spark in his eye which I can imagine if you played with him, you saw when he went over the white line. It’s there right now and he is trying to drag the group up and over the line.

“Yes we’ve got injuries but we still fundamentally believe we should be playing better footy than we are.”

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-2023-richmond-tigers-problems-damien-hardwick-not-interested-end-of-coaching-stint-contract-jack-riewoldt-response/news-story/c02aa691ee250efa85589ae97b755cb0

[TigerLand]

Our dynasty is something I'll be forever grateful for but we do need to learn from our history.

In Wallace and early Hardwick era, our development was pretty ordinary. I'm seeing similarities now. We had some outstanding assistants in Leppa, Carracella and Macrae who developed rookies into borderline club legends through premierships. I'm not seeing that post 2020.

I'm also seeing a lack of leadership and the values/vulnerability/family football stuff we embodied during the great era. I hate to agree that it somes back to the catalyst/trigger of the loss of Mrs Hardwick. She was mentioned in every premiership celebration in some form. You cannot say it had 0 impact on everything at the club. It wasn't anyone's intention but when you have a family first type environment and the leader breaks that, it comprises all values and standards. Which I'm sure we'd agree has slipped since pandemic.

I'd love Dimma to stay and be given a whole new era to work magic again, my issues are ones that I'm unsure can be fixed which is the damage the Mrs Hardwick stuff has done and also our assistants and development. In 2017; we had a much needed overhaul cause Dimma was struggling with the right support. I feel the same way now from fitness guys to all assistants bar Truck.

If those things can be fixed we give ourselves a chance to go again under Dimma.