As botched coach sackings go, Dew’s wasn’t even the worst. Hardwick is the last piece in the puzzle

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Damien Hardwick’s shock resignation from Richmond after the club’s one-point Dreamtime defeat was neither as sudden nor as simple as it seemed.

For a start frustration had been building up in Hardwick for some time. Having squeezed every last drop out of himself, his coaches and his playing leaders to achieve the Tigers’ third premiership in four years it was easy enough for the club to write off 2021 as an aberration.

Damien Hardwick has been heavily linked to replace Stuart Dew at the Suns.Credit: Getty

Hardwick had struggled with the constraints of COVID and experienced a controversial marriage break up that had compromised the club because his new partner was a Richmond staffer. His players, too, were tired, some ageing and others put their hands up admitting they had lost the hunger.

But the coach’s dissatisfaction endured through 2022. The game style that had taken his team to the top was falling apart. Other clubs had adopted it and were executing it far better. He voiced his frustration increasingly to club leaders. Sensing his message no longer resonated, Hardwick probably should have walked away before 2023.

Having made the call to CEO Brendon Gale on May 21 he then entertained the prospect of coaching on until Richmond’s mid-season bye or even until the end of the year. But Gale was firm. He appreciated Hardwick’s offer, but the club needed to move on from its beloved coach once he had mentally checked out.

Now that Gold Coast has sacked Stuart Dew and the prospect of Hardwick moving north to continue his coaching career has moved significantly closer to reality, the state of play has inevitably become shrouded with cynicism.

Certainly, it seems expedient that Hardwick walked away from Richmond in time to enjoy a decent holiday and return to some cleaner air on the Gold Coast in time for player exit interviews, some key list management decisions and to make whatever changes he would require for his off-field team. He returns from his overseas holiday in mid to late August.

The view that Hardwick regained the coaching hunger pretty quickly after walking away does not account for the fact that although his time was up at Richmond he never said he was tired of coaching. Simply that his directives had lost their significance with the Tigers’ players and for a host of reasons the brilliant relationship had reached its end.

It is true that Hardwick has a strong relationship with Dew. Senior Tigers, although always confident Hardwick would coach again and soon, do not believe he quit with any form of understanding with the Suns. My view is that even without a tacit agreement with Hardwick, the Suns had been canvassing the prospect of approaching him for some time. And that even removing Hardwick from the equation, Dew’s job has been under serious threat since the Gather Round loss to Fremantle.

To what extent this was AFL-driven is unclear but it is true that head office had held talks last year with the Alastair Clarkson camp CEO before Mark Evans and his team chose to back Dew.

Would Dustin Martin follow Damien Hardwick if the former Tigers coach joined the Suns?Credit: Scott Barbour

It’s also clear that there was serious disenchantment again as early as round five 2023 with the prospect of another season without finals, and serious misgivings surfacing about Dew’s player preparation. There is no doubt the credentialed Hardwick would come with strong AFL backing, including potentially a portion of its northern markets ambassadorial budget.

Dustin Martin would command marketing money, too, should he choose to end his career with the Suns but that deal looks tricky on several levels and the experience of witnessing Trent Cotchin, Shane Edwards and Jack Riewoldt achieve 300 games for Richmond is as tantalising a reason as any for the champion but complex player to stay at Tigerland.

The Clarkson experience at Hawthorn seems even sadder in the context of what right now appears brilliant timing for his friend Damien Hardwick’s next move. Even removing the scenario surrounding the allegations from a group of former players and their partners which have caused him so much mental anguish, and which he and his former Hawks colleagues strenuously deny, the schism between Clarkson and the club he coached to four premierships is a sorry story. No single person is to blame, but the truth is that the coach overstayed his welcome and the former president Jeff Kennett made a series of significant mistakes in handling a football icon.

Leigh Matthews, who repeatedly states that the significance of the role of the senior coach is overblown, read the writing on the wall at Brisbane and sensing his message was being lost, quit one year early. That Brisbane botched the immediate post-Matthews era was not his doing. Hardwick leaves Richmond at a significant turning point but with a contracted set of football department bosses and staffers in place, a stable board and, even if Gale leaves to take on a top job at the AFL, a CEO succession plan in place.

And if he goes, as expected, to Gold Coast he goes with Richmond’s blessing. Gale would take issue with Matthews, having said many times since 2017 that Hardwick’s role in the Tigers’ success has – if anything – been underplayed. So would Essendon supporters, who have witnessed a complete transformation under Brad Scott of a playing group in which little has changed both in the football department and on-field.

Dew’s departure was messy but not unexpected. It still seems extraordinary given the extent to which such key relationships between the coach and his colleagues had eroded that Dew was so blindsided by his sacking.

Despite Dew’s recent disenchantment with his football general manager Wayne Campbell, and suggestions the club needs a wholesale review Evans, who is under pressure to get this next appointment right, remains determined that pretty much every other piece of the success puzzle is in place.

He was right to stand by Dew last week but he never should have said that Dew would continue beyond his current contract should he do a good job.

But in the context of recent coach sackings it’s not the worst. Essendon holds that mantle after the bungled and cruel manner in which it handled Ben Rutten’s last days. But that was 10 months ago and who’s criticising the Bombers’ administration now?

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