At 10.30am this morning the Richmond Football Club announced that their new senior coach would be Damien Hardwick.
News of this was reported yesterday evening on various Sport websites and then on the television, however it was not formally announced and confirmed until this morning. Damien Hardwick and Ken Hinkley were informed of Richmond’s decision at 5pm yesterday evening.
The final decision was made by the Richmond board on Sunday, but no announcement wanted to be made until all parties involved had been informed of the decision and Richmond president Gary March had returned from New Zealand.
At a press conference held at Punt Road earlier today the following people were present; Richmond President Gary March, New CEO Brendon Gale and Damien Hardwick.
Gary March confirmed that Damien Hardwick is the Richmond Football Club’s new senior coach and that he has a three year deal seeing him coaching from 2010 till 2012.
He goes onto say that Hardwick’s presentation was very professional and innovative and that he has showed a willingness to learn from other codes and games. He stated that Hardwick “exhibited to us an outstanding blueprint to success”.
Hardwick said that he thinks he can deliver a blueprint for success and deliver Richmond its 11th premiership in the not too distant future. His philosophy is to give players the opportunity to improve on and off the field and said “If I improve the list ten percent every year we are going to get where we want to be very quickly”. His number 1 rule is: Win the hard ball when it’s your turn.
Hardwick said that his early coaching influence was his father who was very hard on him. He also credited Dennis Pagan, who brought him to the Bombers reserve team.
When asked about the playing list in regard to the senior players and Ben Cousins his responded to say that there is no sentiment in football and hard decisions will need to be made on the playing list.
Hardwick said “I can’t wait, very much looking forward to getting into it” and that he wishes the players did not get 8 weeks off after the season is finished because he wants to start right now.
Since the resignation of former coach Terry Wallace in June this year, the Tigers have followed a strict process in appointing a new coach. Hardwick and Hinkley did their final presentations just three days ago to the Richmond board.
Late last week it was reported that current caretaker Coach Jade Rawlings’ and Essendon assistant coach Alan Richardson were out of the running for the job. That left Geelong assistant coach Ken Hinkley and Hawthorns assistant Coach Damien Hardwick as the two final candidates for senior job.
Damien Hardwick started his career with Essendon 1994 and made his name as a solid and tough defender, which often saw him fronting the AFL Tribunal. In 2000 he was crucial in Essendon’s Premiership win. He remained at the Bombers until the end of 2001.
In 2002, he moved to Port Adelaide and played for the Power until he retired in 2004. He was also a major influence in Port Adelaide’s Premiership win in 2004.
Hardwick finished with a total of played 207 AFL matches for both Essendon and Port Adelaide between 1994 and 2004.
Since 2005 he has been the assistant coach of Hawthorn under Alistair Clarkson.
When asked in the press conference about this Saturday’s game against Essendon, he said that he thought the Hawks would win. Hawthorn is expected to farewell Damien Hardwick today, with the clubs blessing
Tags: Brendon Gale, Damien Hardwick, Jade Rawlings, Ken Hinkley
Stay Up-to-date
Never miss a big story again by subscribing to us by RSS, email or twitter.
