Triple-premiership coach Damien Hardwick has stepped aside from the top job at Richmond effective immediately after realising he was no longer able to commit “100 per cent” to the job.
Hardwick told a packed media conference at Punt Road on Tuesday that he had felt for some time that 2023 would be his last year as Richmond coach.
The conviction that the time was right to stand down and let the players “listen to a different voice” became clearer in the past couple of weeks, prompting the decision to call time on his record 307-game tenure.
“I would rather leave too early than too late,” he said.
Current assistant Andrew McQualter has been appointed as interim coach and will assume the reins for Sunday’s clash with Port Adelaide.
Hardwick paid tribute to everyone associated with Richmond – a club he joined in 2010 after a distinguished playing career at Essendon and Port Adelaide and an assistant coaching stint at Hawthorn under his great friend Alastair Clarkson.
“It’s a tough gig being an AFL coach but the support I’ve received from the majority of people has been absolutely outstanding,” he said.
“The Richmond football club has been the love of my life.”
Richmond president John O’Rourke paid tribute to Hardwick’s legacy.
“History was created under his watch and for that we will be forever indebted,” he told reporters.
Hardwick’s term was the longest in Richmond history and he’ll go down as one of the club’s all-time greats alongside Tom Hafey, having led the Tigers to premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
But it could all have turned out very differently, with the club under extreme pressure to sack Hardwick when they plummeted to 13th place in 2016 after three successive finals campaigns.
“He was a good coach and the evidence bore that out,” CEO Brendon Gale said on Tuesday of the pivotal decision seven years ago to stick with Hardwick.
“Fundamentally we thought we had a fine person and a very good coach.
“… it was about ignoring the noise and the rest is history.”
There will be speculation about the 50-year-old’s future and whether – or when – he could coach again at another club next year or beyond.
Port Adelaide’s Ken Hinkley is out of contract at the end of this season, West Coast’s Adam Simpson is under mounting pressure after a horror run and Stuart Dew can hardly afford another year without September action at Gold Coast.
There is also a cloud hanging over North Melbourne, with Alastair Clarkson on indefinite leave from the club.
Hinkley, who rejected overtures from Essendon last year, was runner-up to Hardwick for the Richmond job in late 2009 before winning the Power role ahead of the 2013 season.
Port and Hinkley have repeatedly stated they have put off contract talks until at least August, though that could now change.
The club may be keen to lock in the 56-year-old after seven straight wins that have seen them rocket into premiership contention.
Damien Hardwick. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Collingwood coach Craig McRae said he was “shocked” by Hardwick’s decision to quit when the news broke on Monday night.
McRae worked as an assistant under Hardwick through the 2017-2020 glory years and said his former mentor had coached with “courage” in a job that grinds people down.
“You get tired. You’ve got to find energy sources,” McRae told Fox Footy.
“You’re constantly trying to find the right balance to find the right energy to give to your playing group.
“You find the energy for your players and then you get home and you’re exhausted. Your wife and family want you to find energy too.”
The Tigers currently sit in 14th spot on the ladder, with just three wins and a draw from the opening 10 rounds.
Richmond could not have been at a lower ebb when Damien Hardwick took over as coach before the 2010 season.
It had been three long decades since the once mighty Tigers had tasted the ultimate success.
And for most of those 30 years, Richmond had been the AFL’s equivalent to the punch-line of a bad joke.
No-one expected a quick turnaround in fortunes, even under the stewardship of a man who had enjoyed the ultimate success as a player at Essendon (2000) and Port Adelaide (2004) and as an assistant coach at Hawthorn under his great mate Alastair Clarkson (2008).
Just nine games into Hardwick’s tenure and the enormity of the task had been laid bare – the club again sat in last spot on the ladder with an 0-9 win-loss record and a miserable percentage of 56.2.
They were unkindly labelled “the worst team since Fitzroy” in reference to the sorry Lions outfit that went 1-21 in their last season in the competition in 1996.
Hardwick finally masterminded his first win against the odds away to Port Adelaide on a wet day at Football Park in round 10, 2010.
It may not have been clear then but the renaissance was underway at last with a list that included plenty of deadwood but also had Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Jack Riewoldt and Shane Edwards, all of whom would go on to become triple premiership heroes.
The Tigers finally ended a 12-year finals drought under Hardwick in 2013 – but it was to be the first of three straight elimination final defeats.
When the club plummeted to 13th spot in 2016 there were plenty at Punt Road calling for the coach’s head.
In years gone by, when the unofficial catch-cry of “Eat ‘Em’ Alive” too often translated to “eat their own”, it could well have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But president Peggy O’Neal, CEO Brendon Gale and prodigal son Neil Balme – finally lured back as footy boss – stuck fat with the coach.
It was an inspired decision.
Twelve months later the Tigers were celebrating their 11th premiership, with the upset 48-point win over Adelaide ending a 37-year drought.
Further flags were won in 2019 against GWS and in 2020 against Geelong, with a trademark method of frenetic ball movement now favoured by teams such as the 2023 premiership favourites Collingwood.
For Hardwick, the 2020 victory was the best of all, coming at the unlikely venue of the Gabba in a season dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coach had initially railed against the restrictions imposed on the clubs – and society as a whole.
“They’re all different, (but) this one I think this one is extra significant,” he said after the Dustin Martin-inspired win over the Cats.
“What we had to go through to get here, the 100-odd days in a hub, how hard the AFL, Queensland Government, the people in Victoria did it … it’s just an enormous achievement.”
The Tigers missed the finals in 2021 and were rolled by Brisbane in an nailbiting elimination final in 2022.
With the golden generation of Cotchin, Riewoldt, Martin and Co nearing the end of the road, the club loaded up for what they figured would be another flag tilt in 2023, prising midfield bulls Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper out of GWS at the cost of a slew of draft picks.
Trent Cotchin with Damien Hardwick in 2019. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/AFL Media/via Getty Images )
Taranto has been among the Tigers’ best in 2023, but with key players such as Tom Lynch and Toby Nankervis cruelled by injury, they had slumped to 14th spot on the ladder by the conclusion of round 10.
Never mind the pursuit of a 14th flag – even making the 2023 finals would now be a long shot.
Hardwick is expected to detail the reasons for his shock departure on Tuesday.
It’s not hard to imagine that the phrase “burnout” will get an airing.
But his legacy as a legend of the Richmond Football Club is assured.
He has coached the club a record 307 times and his three flags place him behind only the fabled Tom Hafey, who masterminded the 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974 premierships.
It will be one tough act to follow.
DAMIEN HARDWICK TO LEAVE A LASTING LEGACY AT AFL CLUB RICHMOND
Born: August 18, 1972
Playing career
Essendon: 153 games from 1994-2001
* Member of 2000 premiership team
* 1998 best and fairest winner
* Member of 2000 All-Australian team
Port Adelaide: 54 games from 2002-04
* Member of 2004 premiership team
Coaching career
Hawthorn assistant coach from 2005-09
* Member of coaching panel of the 2008 Hawks premiership team
Richmond senior coach from 2010-23 – 307 games (170 wins-131 losses-six draws)
* Coach of 2017, 2019 and 2020 premiership teams
Most games as Richmond coach
307 – Damien Hardwick
248 – Tom Hafey
222 – Jack Dyer
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