Hardwick should see Clarksons final Hawthorn years as a cautionary tale
Alastair Clarkson and Damien Hardwick have come a long way since the then 30-something pair moved from Port Adelaide to Hawthorn at the end of 2004. Clarkson, the newly appointed 36-year-old senior coach, had lured the retiring Hardwick, 32, fresh from a pivotal role in the Power’s first AFL premiership to an assistant coaching role, despite Mark Williams’ best efforts to do the same at Port.
Hardwick would work under Clarkson’s tutelage for five years, including the master coach’s first flag in 2008, but the pair remained close family friends, neighbours, and running partners for many years beyond that. In 2017, when Hardwick ended Richmond’s 37-year premiership drought, Clarkson joyfully gatecrashed Hardwick’s post-match media conference.
Damien Hardwick and Alastair Clarkson arm-in-arm before the 2018 qualifying final between the Tigers and the Hawks.Credit:Getty Images
With seven premierships between them, Clarkson and Hardwick accounted for more than half the AFL flags between 2008 and Hardwick’s most recent one in 2020. So there is some symmetry to the fact that Clarkson’s last and 390th game as Hawthorn coach will come at the MCG against his old friend, a match that will also bring to an end the extraordinary playing career of Hardwick’s Port Adelaide premiership teammate Shaun Burgoyne.
By Clarkson’s own admission it has been a messy end at Hawthorn. Or certainly a messy month before his inevitable departure was finally resolved. In a farewell interview on AFL 360, he mused in passing that he ultimately was always going to be sacked and probably should have pulled up stumps six years ago.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick.Credit:AFL Photos
For both senior coaches, the Richmond-Hawthorn game ultimately looms as a dead rubber despite its historic nature - bringing to an end a disappointing season for both clubs. The Tigers frankly look exhausted. Since the mid-June bye, the only real highlight was Jack Riewoldt’s 300th against the Brisbane Lions. And while the reigning champions have limped to the line in 2021, the on-field struggle has again been punctuated by a share of off-field scandal mingled with a heavy dose of damage control.
None of the club’s leaders have been at their best and at times it has looked as though the club squeezed every last drop to achieve, against so many odds, that mighty 2020 premiership. Throughout it all, Richmond’s warrior coach has been at his spikiest. At his brilliant best culminating in the victory against Geelong, and the ultimate Tiger father in savagely leaping to the defence of his players.
But hubris, too, has crept into Hardwick’s weaponry and an air of entitlement not lost upon the coaching fraternity, those AFL bosses from other clubs who have sat alongside him on committees, and certainly the AFL who loathed his early COVID mood swings and cannot forgive him for saying he hated coming to Marvel Stadium. Even allowing for the fact that this competitive system conspires against winning dynasties comes the impression that the game’s bosses have had enough of Richmond.
The inevitable comparisons with Clarkson come into play when Hardwick defenders say that with any fierce competitor comes behavioural issues. Clarkson has been a nightmare to deal with at times and it cannot be a coincidence that so many good people left Hawthorn so soon after the 2015 premiership as the coach became all-powerful.
No one will be happier to see Richmond miss September than those head office leaders who have complained for two seasons about how difficult the Tigers have been to deal with, pointing the finger, in particular, at Hardwick, and specifically during the Queensland COVID hubs of 2020.
Naturally, there is a touch of politics in the AFL’s attitude. For some reason that still defeats so many club bosses and even some of Gillon McLachlan’s league colleagues, McLachlan some time ago took a negative view on the prospect of Brendon Gale as his successor, even as so many club heavyweights and former AFL executives mounted the campaign for the highly-regarded CEO. So, Richmond’s struggles now and the club’s perceived inability to control its coach at times have suited that narrative.
The football community seems divided as to whether the Richmond dynasty is finished, or whether the club can reshape itself in the manner or Geelong and remain consistently competitive. Perhaps they will be better for the early break. Certainly - and although the Tigers continue to rail against the stripping of their hard-fought competitive advantages - the Gale era has created the financial and social backdrop for success and Blair Hartley is an industry leader in list management.
In the midst of a personal scandal that caused some genuine angst and divisions in the corridors of Tigerland this year, the club backed the coach and extended his contract until the end of 2024.
Unlike after Clarkson’s last flag, Richmond’s leaders Gale and Hartley - despite a number of offers - and Tim Livingstone are going nowhere, according to the club, and, as Peggy O’Neal’s presidency enters its last season, a succession plan is clearly in place there. Gale has notably travelled with the team again this year and the prevailing view is that the coach remains subject to the full requirement of checks and balances.
Against that, football guru Neil Balme is expected to field an offer from the Crows as they work to improve their football operation and, as is customary, at least two assistant coaches, Adam Kingsley and Andrew McQualter, have been targeted by other clubs. Hardwick, too, will surely attract interest from rival clubs.
Still, it feels as though Richmond are at the crossroads after four brilliant seasons. Just as Hawthorn was over the two-year period from 2016 where Clarkson eased Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis and Luke Hodge out of the club and oversaw a series of list changes that ultimately failed to regenerate the Hawks.
As Hardwick enters this next stage, he would do well as he celebrates his friend and former colleague’s legendary coaching era at Hawthorn to look upon Clarkson’s final years as a cautionary tale.
Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.
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