Richmond Tigers coach Damien Hardwick’s shock call a sign of the times

The AFL coaching landscape is getting madder every week but Damien Hardwick’s decision to step aside as Tigers coach after 10 rounds is the maddest development yet.

His decision took everyone outside the Tigers by surprise, and if anyone at Richmond saw the decision brewing they kept it well hidden.

It underlines what a tough, unrelenting job being a senior coach is, particularly if you are striving to find the motivation to scale football’s mountain for a fourth time, with a new group in the same jumpers, who you need to teach the same tricks all over again.

Perhaps in the post-COVID world where evaluation of what matters is part of the zeitgeist, Hardwick is showing the side that endeared him to his players and staff.

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Hardwick will be most disappointed he did not get to inform his players before the news broke because he was a players’ man.

He defended them to the hilt from start to finish, even when his defences sometimes seemed unreasonable to the real world. He had players board at his place. He invested his whole being, with even his marriage breakdown being a public event.

However, Hardwick lived by the motto never complain, never explain. He did not seek out relationships within the media but could be pleasant and humorous company if encountered in his downtime. He could also be direct and occasionally narky if he thought the bounds of basic decency had been breached. But he got on with things, away from the glamour and razzmatazz.

Under his tutelage the Tigers eventually became feared and ruthless and winners, winning three flags in four years in a golden run that gave long-suffering fans such joy.