"This is a coach who sometimes behaves as though he's bigger than the club."
Caroline Wilson and the Footy Classified team react to the recent war of words Damien Hardwick has found himself in recently.
Watch here: https://twitter.com/FootyonNine/status/1424710747611877380-------------------------------------------------------------
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has been criticised for his swipe at Lions great Jonathan Brown, with veteran reporter Caroline Wilson suggesting the triple premiership-winner "sometimes behaves as though he's bigger than the club".
With the reigning premiers currently sitting in 10th position, Hardwick has been increasingly irritable this season, notably taking aim at the AFL for fixturing a Tigers match at Marvel Stadium earlier in the season.
After his side scripted a second-half comeback win against the AFL's bottom-placed side, the Kangaroos, on the weekend, Hardwick took aim at Brown, who had criticised Tigers star Tom Lynch for his lack of involvement at half-time.
The comments did not sit well with Wilson, whose assessment of Hardwick's "personal issues" resulted in the Tigers coach imposing a ban on her radio station, 3AW, earlier this year.
"This is a coach who sometimes behaves as though he's bigger than the club, and his ban on 3AW is one example of that," she told Nine's Footy Classified.
"Why would you ban the top-rating football station in the country because of one journalist whose comments he didn't like? You don't have to go on [3AW] with me.
"With some of those comments, the club at the time saw him in the zone, in the mood, and probably weren't quite as tough on him as they maybe should have been. I just hope at some point now they are because there is just a pattern emerging.
"I don't like journos asking coaches, 'Matthew Lloyd said this, what do you think about it?', because if they think it, they should just put it on their own opinion, not Jonathan Brown, but why would you make a comment about Jonathan Brown going out and coaching? That was a perfectly valid point about Tom Lynch."
Wilson's view was supported by Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes, who defended Brown's criticism of Lynch's performance against North Melbourne.
"It's hard, because [when] you're winning you get away with a bit more," he said.
"Throw in the comment about Marvel Stadium in there, how foolish does that look now with the situation that we're in?
"Tom Lynch had two kicks on the weekend against the 18th team, Jonathan Brown would produce more than that.
"There's a line where the criticism is fair and what Jonathan Brown said wasn't over the top."
While Hardwick's old Essendon teammate Matthew Lloyd admitted the Tigers coach can get personal at times, he argued that it was the very trait that made him special.
"It's an interesting one because David Teague gets hammered for not giving enough, and then Damien Hardwick, he gets emotional, he probably gets protective of his players," he said.
"I know he does [get personal] occasionally. I defend Damien Hardwick because it's what makes him a great coach and a players' coach, because of the passion he exudes."
https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/caroline-wilson-unloads-on-damien-hardwick-snappy-behaviour-media-conferences/15c5df54-a031-4f51-b990-56af8962f8b7
