‘Given his word’: Hardwick promise could bite Richmond

Richmond’s side that suffered a one-point loss to Essendon on Saturday – which Hardwick described as “diabolical” – included a number of premiership stars over the age of 30 with Dylan Grimes (31), Jack Riewoldt (34), Dustin Martin (31) and Trent Cotchin (33) all nearing retirement.

Hodge believes the club has a big question to ask itself, comparing it to the problems of Hawthorn after its premiership reign.

“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?,” he 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.

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“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?”

The former Hawthorn Hawks and Brisbane Lions midfielder added the inclusion of Tasmania will no doubt impact what Richmond decide to do. 

“You don’t want to be rebuilding when Tasmania come in and getting not all the draft picks because you’ll be staying down the bottom for a long time so maybe that’s a part of the decision as well,” he said. “(Maybe) they’re looking to rebuild at the moment, rather than doing it in four or five years with a Tassie team that will have a lot of draft picks.”

Richmond added former Greater Western Sydney duo Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper on seven-year deals, seemingly with an eye for attempting to maintain success.

Hodge believes the new style of football to accommodate the signings hasn’t quite worked to the side’s advantage, with injuries to Tom Lynch and Toby Nankervis not helping either. 

“The list has changed a lot and they did go in and got Taranto because they were never a big win clearance kind of a team, they thought with the list they’ve got now they’d have to win it from the (middle) and get it going forward and it hasn’t worked out as they would’ve liked,” he said.

“I’d probably look to rebuild, the stars in their side are now the wrong side of 30 and we all know how hard it is to win a premiership if you look at the teams that are up the top at the moment, it’s so wide open … there’s probably six or seven teams that could claim they’ve got a reason or are a good enough list to win the flag.”

The big problem exposed by Hardwick call

With his former coach Clarkson recently stepping down indefinitely in the wake of intense scrutiny from the Hawthorn racism review, Hodge believes there’s not many jobs with more pressure than an AFL coach.

“I don’t think there’s a more stressful job in Australian sport, maybe the coach of the Australian cricket team … a head coach, you can see the stresses coaches go through, not only when they’re not going so well but the expectations when they’re going well, trying to win every week,” he said.

Geelong coach Chris Scott also recently described his round 10 post-match press conference as “the worst 10 minutes of my week” in a though-provoking response.

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