Some of the more hard-nosed Tiger fans may not reflect well on how these two went, but I have never forgotten that these two put their hands up for the job when no one else was hard or brave enough. They arrived into their posts while our playing lists were becoming or already were abject deserts, impoverished for talent. Also, the guillotine was still warm (and being kept warm just in case).
Hard and brave were hallmarks of Damien Hardwick’s playing career. He hails from the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, the nearby hills. When you’re playing the early morning starts of the junior leagues out that way, you’d better be tough. The frosts make every bump and scratch a torture. Young lads would, understandably, get a little rowdy, and a regular loose fist to the half frozen ear (the most painful knock you can get if you’ve ever had one) was just part of the deal back then. (All of this of course before the AFL came into being and wanted the game cleaned up at every level...).
In the Baby Bombers premiership season of 2000, there was one bloke on the ground who was no baby. Solidly determined in defence all day, reliable to the last tackle - Damien Hardwick. He was All Australian that year, named in the back pocket like so many of the game’s men of great determination and insight. He earned his place, but he was so fierce that year that no one would have been brave enough to deny him.
In 2004, a premiership year at Port Adelaide, his mind was as willing and cunning as ever, but his body was softening ever so slightly. Fit young blokes everywhere, so the wily defender who liked to run out from deep in defence needed to rethink his role. During that season, he became the league’s master of the niggling game. If you lined up against Damien, you were going to be harassed into oblivion. He didn’t get the ball much, but he made sure the players he stood also suffered possessional poverty. His attitude that season was founded upon sacrifice for the sake of the team. By the end of the season he had a second premiership medallion around his neck.
Hard and brave. But also very sharp. And humble. Dimma came to coach Richmond from the start of 2010 season, when we had finally tired of the talking suntan. The players revolted, the guillotine swung and as a club we faced the abyss yet again. We needed someone to put their hand up, again in the face of an underperforming and ‘not quite right’ playing list, and all of the turmoil that will ever follow a player’s revolt. Hard and brave. Smart. And someone who had walked the path to the top a couple of times, someone who would know the difference between blind optimism and gritty reality. Someone who would grow the club up quickly, finally bring it into the AFL era, where more than just promise is necessary. Systems, structures, intelligence, resilience, depth, expenditure, decent training facilities - all of these things would need to be brought together at a club where almost none of them existed.
Damien knocked the coaching selection panel over by providing far more than just a shallow sales pitch. He gave the panel a well thought through and defensible master plan for success. He’d thought about every aspect of the club - on field and off field. All the changes that would be required to make the club mature. He (or someone else, maybe Benny Gale) called it a convincing blue print for success.
Whatever it is about Damien, it is working. In my opinion he is the steadiest, most determined, hardest working and honest coach we have had in a generation. I watch his media conferences in awe. The insight, humility, the care, the honesty. The steadfast commitment to the plan. The consistency. His qualities are taking us somewhere, and I’m glad he is ours. Eat them alive Tigers, eat them alive.
