May 23, 2023 is very much a fork in the road for the Richmond Football Club.
It’s the day the club’s longest-standing coach Damien Hardwick called time on his illustrious tenure effective immediately after 307 games over 14 seasons and three premierships.
It comes in a season the Tigers attempted to reboot their recent golden era with one last swing at silverware by trading several first-round picks for star midfield duo Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper to round out the bones of a premiership team.
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Dimma roasts Riewoldt on the way out | 01:08
Hardwick even admitted he’d always planned for this season to be his last and that he made the “fatal mistake” of watching the Michael Jordan Last Dance documentary to inspire him to go out on a high.
But through 10 rounds, the Tigers have been a ways off flag contention, sitting 14th on the ladder with just three wins.
Despite Richmond’s underwhelming form in the first half of the season, Hardwick believes the club is in good hands for whoever replaces him.
“Whilst we did invest significant draft capital, we’ve bought in two players in Taranto and Hopper that are going to be outstanding players for this footy club for the next six or seven years,” Hardwick told reporters on Tuesday.
“So whichever coach takes over is going to be in a very, very good place.
“We got a young Josh Gibcus who hasn’t played this year, Tom Lynch has played barely any games and we’ve got some young players that are unfortunately injured at the moment.
“But this list is in a really, really good place. This list management team has done a wonderful job — and coach aside — this side is well placed to go forward.”
No matter how much change the Tigers embrace, it marks the start of a new era and proper opportunity for the club to take a deep breath and reassess where it’s at.
Does it stay the course and continue to push for finals, or use Hardwick’s departure as a catalyst for further change and potentially a full-scale rebuild?
Dusty to Dimma: Go to Ibiza! | 00:44
WHY THERE’S ALREADY A CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Even before Hardwick’s departure, change was already afoot at Punt Road, both on and off the field.
While Taranto and Hopper were acquired with the hope of helping them contend this year, the pair are just 25 and 26 respectively and, as mentioned by Hardwick, they’ll play several more years for the club and help transition it into a new era.
There’s a view the club sold the farm by handing over three first-round picks and a second rounder to get them through the door and have one last crack, plus as things stand, their first selection in this year’s draft isn’t until the 30s.
But that doesn’t mean the Tigers haven’t made a shift to prioritising the development of their next wave of players, such as Maurice Rioli, Samson Ryan, Jack Ross, Tyler Sonsie, Hugo Ralphsmith, Rhyan Mansell, Judson Clarke and Josh Gibcus.
So while Richmond still has 18 premiership players on its list, it’s very much a different looking team now much with less experience, albeit not necessarily completely by design amid a host of injuries.
Plus several of those flag heroes are over the age of 30 and coming towards the end of their careers including Dylan Grimes, Dustin Martin (both 31), Robbie Tarrant, Jack Riewoldt (both 34), and Trent Cotchin (33), the latter two who appear set to retire at season’s end.
Then there’s Nick Vlastuin, Kamdyn McIntosh (both 29), Nathan Broad, Tom Lynch, Dion Prestia (all 30) and Marlion Pickett (31) approaching their twilight days.
You can’t help but wonder what sort of ramifications Hardwick’s exit will have on some of those players’ futures.
Off the field, it seems likely that CEO Brendon Gale will depart the club at season’s end after being in his role for 14 years.
It follows the club’s trailblazing ex-president Peggy O’Neal, who was the first female president when she was elected in 2013, moving on at the end of last season.
Hardwick, O’Neal, Gale were all central to the club’s recent golden era of success, so the list aside, how the club reforms without them is a big unknown.
Arguably no decision moving forward will be more important than the next coach.
Hardwick tears in emotional resignation | 04:34
HOW NEXT COACH COULD SHAPE DIRECTION
Ahead of a thorough coaching search, Tigers CEO Brendon Gale said the club would “redefine the attributes to be the Richmond coach for the next 10 years” and that it’s aim was to find the “next Damien Hardwick.”
Working in the Tigers’ favour is they now has sufficient time to find that next person in what’ll be just the club’s third permanent coach this century.
And the person that ends up in the hot seat could well have a key bearing on what direction it goes in from here.
It’s the age old question whenever any club is on the lookout for a new coach — do they go for an untried option who appears ready to take the next step, or someone more credentialed?
History has shown that there’s no obvious option, and either can work out.
Even if the Tigers go for someone with less experience, it doesn’t mean they’d have to rebuild and that they can’t still compete for finals. Craig McRae has set that blueprint at Collingwood.
On the other hand, if Richmond did turn to a wiser head, it can still do so with a long-term view, as Brad Scott and Ross Lyon have shown at Essendon and St Kilda respectively.
But whoever it is that steps into the top job at Punt Road will clearly mould the list, game plan and overall pathway in their own way.
McRae “grateful” for Hardwick | 02:02
KEY CONTRACT CALLS
A telling moment in Damien Hardwick‘s press conference came when he mentioned ‘The Last Dance’ documentary.
“I made the fatal mistake of watching ‘The Last Dance’ (documentary), thought what may have been, but once I decided that part of the equation started to slip away then I started to question myself … as soon as I started asking the question more I started to understand what the answer was going to be,” he said.
“The best thing for myself was to step aside. If I couldn’t give 100 per cent there was no way I was going to coach this football club.”
In effect, Hardwick appeared to be admitting he had come to the realisation this side would not win one final premiership before sailing off into the sunset.
If that’s the case, it only emphasises further the list decisions looming at year’s end.“I think the success of what Hawthorn had and the correlation with Richmond and what they‘ve been through (is what they face), both had three flags … so I guess it’s got to the same point as Alastair Clarkson and Hawthorn in 2016 where you go: do you rebuild?,” Luke Hodge said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“But Alastair Clarkson had given his word to the new players and Dimma is the same to what he said to (Tim) Taranto and (Jacob) Hopper … to bring players into your club and go back on what you promised them, they both promised their players they were going to strive again for more success and for them to be part of a premiership side.
“We’ve heard Alastair Clarkson said he might’ve stayed a year or two too long and Dimma’s probably looking at this going well am I up for the next five years of the rebuild or do I hand it over?”
Taranto and Hopper were both brought across on seven-year deals, so their futures are not in question, even if the prospect of premiership contention is.
Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt both weighed up their future before deciding to play on in 2023, with the careers of both likely to come to an end at the close of the season.
Nathan Broad is in good form at 30 years of age and has a contract expiring at the close of this season.
A restricted free agent, Broad now likely won‘t be part of the Tigers’ next premiership side, so Richmond could well look to get a good return for their premiership defender to help add to the next wave of talent.
Dustin Martin comes out of contract at the end of 2024 along with Dion Prestia.
There are plenty of tough decisions ahead for the Tigers, but Hardwick’s decision to move on may not only prove the domino for the coaching merry-go-round, but also the list at large.
