Damien Hardwick - Sticking it up the doubters

[PetterdHoisted]

Rewind the clock 7-8 months ago and Richmond were a rabble. Coups, disenchanted supporter groups, Boardroom factions and rumours of player unease. The common belief was that Hardwick should go. This was largely led by supporters who questioned his gameplan and ability to reinvigorate what most described as a mediocre list.

Fast forward to now and Hardwick is coaching arguably better than anyone in the league. The players are playing with renewed energy and the kids look exciting future prospects.

Too often people in the AFL industry are unfairly potted when they fail yet do not receive the credit they deserve when they turn things around. I think we are all glad the Hardwick doubters have been proved wrong as he is a quality coach and individual and will be hopefully rewarded with a contract extension over the next 12 months.

Interested to hear the opinion of Richmond poster's whether they admit calls for Hardwick's head were premature?


Good onya Dimma proving a lot of doubters wrong

Two words: Ernst. Young.

I believe they guarantee at least a 3-0 start when you sign on for the review.

 

[PP34]

Yeah give him a 5 year deal on the back of 5 games.

Sounds like the sensible thing to do. You do realise why he has been under fire yeah? Didn't reach expectations last season, three really poor finals campaigns with no real improvement since Richmond's initial climb up the ladder and a gameplan that was shithouse.

The only thing that has really changed is that they've played 5 games against teams they had a shot at beating and they've picked up some good recruits. That certainly doesn't make Hardwick a good coach. He's got miles to go before you can go calling him a quality AFL coach. For a start you'd want to see him get a result in September rather than having his team and the gameplan go to water like it inevitably did in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

OP surely has to be trolling.

 

[sprockets]

Tigers were hardly a rabble. While there was the usual disenchantment of not making the finals, many Tiger supporters were forgiving of an ordinary (not bad) year.

But yes, this week will show us where we are really at, afterall we haven't beaten anyone yet... Considering that last point, there seems to be a LOT of opposition supporters starting threads and talking about us.

 

[dean33]

Nank, Presti and Caddy have all been good though.

They needed more aggression around the ball, and those three have fit in really well and all about to enter their prime. Crazy to think Nanko is still only 22, with very little AFL experience.

Big Toby is the recruit of the season. And to think we got him for a pick in the 40's.

 

[dean33]

Yeah give him a 5 year deal on the back of 5 games.

Sounds like the sensible thing to do. You do realise why he has been under fire yeah? Didn't reach expectations last season, three really poor finals campaigns with no real improvement since Richmond's initial climb up the ladder and a gameplan that was shithouse.

The only thing that has really changed is that they've played 5 games against teams they had a shot at beating and they've picked up some good recruits. That certainly doesn't make Hardwick a good coach. He's got miles to go before you can go calling him a quality AFL coach. For a start you'd want to see him get a result in September rather than having his team and the gameplan go to water like it inevitably did in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

OP surely has to be trolling.

Have you watched richmond play this year? You think nothing has changed? Our game plan is unrecognizable from previous years.

 

[HTT]

A cautionary tale that That April performances do not equate to sticking it up the doubters.

That's what I thought the thread was discussing.

In 2013 we made finals for the first time in 12 years and finished 5th, literally a goal umpires leg from the top 4. And looked right at home in the finals until half time.

 

[Spook]

Neil Balme has been the best thing that has happened to Richmond. Just like when Geelong were in crisis in 2006, after their thermal review the only change they made was the addition of Balme.

 

[irish]

Soft soft draw so far , crows will put this comedy to an end ! AFL plot to get memberships and attendances up by giving hope to the manic tiger tribe by easy start and false expectations

Woopin time is coming tigers !

 

[Kwality]

Rewind the clock 7-8 months ago and Richmond were a rabble. Coups, disenchanted supporter groups, Boardroom factions and rumours of player unease. The common belief was that Hardwick should go. This was largely led by supporters who questioned his gameplan and ability to reinvigorate what most described as a mediocre list.

Fast forward to now and Hardwick is coaching arguably better than anyone in the league. The players are playing with renewed energy and the kids look exciting future prospects.

Too often people in the AFL industry are unfairly potted when they fail yet do not receive the credit they deserve when they turn things around. I think we are all glad the Hardwick doubters have been proved wrong as he is a quality coach and individual and will be hopefully rewarded with a contract extension over the next 12 months.

Interested to hear the opinion of Richmond poster's whether they admit calls for Hardwick's head were premature?


Good onya Dimma proving a lot of doubters wrong

Check out the team Benny & Co have got around him in 2017 - has Dimma changed or is Balmey the boss, who really changed the game plan.

Begs the question on the roles of the Football Director & the coach !! Collingwood too ....

 

[Beer n Skittles]

Only took 5 years to realise they needed some tough midfielders & to give up on the high possession gameplan

 

[juss]

He really needs to be judged at the end of the season, not the beginning.
Great start thoigh, we have defenitely improved.

 

[Nostradumbass]

Soft soft draw so far , crows will put this comedy to an end ! AFL plot to get memberships and attendances up by giving hope to the manic tiger tribe by easy start and false expectations

Woopin time is coming tigers !

We buy memberships regardless and we turn up to games as well. Try again.

 

[HairyO]

Something something good teams?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Have said it all along - Hardwick can coach.

He's actually got the best out of squads that have a bit of top talent and a lot of very limited, ordinary players.

Perhaps the squad is finally rounding out. Rioli has been great. Vickery is gone.

 

[blitzer]

He couldn't have done any more so far this season. I'm still not sure I'm a believer in Hardwick the coach. He's been around at Richmond for a long, long time without any finals wins.

If they finish top 5-8 and go out first round - is that good enough?

Hardwick has had a lot of time to build this list exactly the way he wanted so any deficiencies at this point are clearly attributable to him.

Note: If they go onto make a prelim or even just win a final then I reckon he's done enough for this particular year.

 

[Tigers_fan24]

Shit, they were probably lucky to beat us, if we took our chances we probably win that game, they were lucky last week as well (as any team is who wins by a slender margin).

Jury is still out for mine, we'll see where they're at when they play some of the big boys.

Yeah we probably should have won last week by about 30 odd points though, we missed a heap of sodas in the third and the 4th. You have a point for Collingwood game tho, but fact is we were good enough to make it count and capitalise on Collingwoods many weaknesses that make them a poor team

 

[Tigers_fan24]

Kissed on the dick against Melbourne and lucky to snatch other games. Will be exposed when the real stuff starts against good teams. Good start though wish it was the Pies.

Said by someone who definitely didn't watch the game, we ended up with more scoring shots and missed a lot of easy ones. Melbourne were kissed on the dick by the umps with soft free kicks that were in front of goal

 

[Barnzy]

For mine, it the change of assistant coaches with fresh ideas. No more yes men pandering to Hardwick.

Our biggest problem last year was our ball movement. Lots of disposals went nowhere, sideways and backwards. No scoreboard impact. Very Collingwood-esque 2017 you could say.

Caracalla has come in and taken over as ball movement coach. Suddenly it's improved drastically in one off-season. Hardwick deserves credit for allowing change to happen, but he is not the driving force behind the change.

Leppa replacing Mark Williams as forwards coach was important too (not the ex AFL head coach, but the useless unknown assistant).

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Yeah we probably should have won last week by about 30 odd points though, we missed a heap of sodas in the third and the 4th. You have a point for Collingwood game tho, but fact is we were good enough to make it count and capitalise on Collingwoods many weaknesses that make them a poor team

Yeah true, also your new recruits have certainly added something.

 

[Tigers_fan24]

it's even funnier when their faux tough guys like Jones get shown up as the soft ***** they are
credit to Hate for the gif

To be fair on jones though, every player in the afl would shit themselves against dusty

 

[JayJ20]

People keep looking at the Tigers from a contending perspective. That's not what they would be looking at.

Look at it from an improvement perspective and they are well ahead. In the preseason, they were favoured to finish bottom 4. Now they are 5-0 and look to be likely finalists with not only a revamped gameplan, but also a significant improvement from both their youth and senior players. They look like a different side to last year.

This weekend will show us where they are at compared to the top teams, but they are certainly far away from being the bottom team that they looked to be at the end of last year

 

[Frank Gallagher]

If Richmonds run continues it will give oxygen to the Buckley lovers, "But Hardwick needed 7years etc etc".

 

[Gydafud]

Looks like Dusty has some anger issues if he is ready to boil over after a brush of the arm.

Admittedly, I am a doubter still, as the sample size is still pretty small. Don't care to be proven wrong though, happy for the Tigers to have some success

 

[blured]

it's even funnier when their faux tough guys like Jones get shown up as the soft ***** they are
credit to Hate for the gif

He's only baiting chopsticks for the free

 

[Ron The Bear]

Last year we were nigh on unwatchable in a number of games, but the way we're playing has put the enjoyment back in footy for Tiger fans.

My expectations this year were low (and remain tempered), but it's been as good a start as could have been hoped for.

Looks like Dusty has some anger issues if he is ready to boil over after a brush of the arm.

Our players were into Jones all night. Pretty sure he went into the game with an injury/soreness.