Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says he won’t back down from supporting his players despite a recent public rift with Brisbane Lions great Jonathan Brown.
After the Tigers kept their season alive last weekend with a second-half comeback win against the AFL’s bottom-placed side, the Kangaroos, Hardwick took aim at Brown, who had criticised Tigers star Tom Lynch for his lack of involvement at half-time.
“Come and sit on the field and see how you go,” Hardwick said at the time when asked about Brown’s criticism of Lynch.
“Browny is capable of putting his hands up to coach at some stage, if he wants to coach, by all means, put your hand up. Seriously, give me his job, let’s swap for a week.”
Hardwick’s comments have since resulted in some backlash, with veteran reporter Caroline Wilson telling Nine’s Footy Classified that the triple premiership-winning coach “sometimes behaves as though he’s bigger than the club”.
Responding to the criticism today, Hardwick said his responsibility was to support his playing group and claims he’s now happy to move on from his stoush with Brown.
“Not really my concern. My job is to support my players. End of story. If people get sensitive to it then – part and parcel of the job, as far as I am concerned,” he said.
“We are all big boys. I am sure Jono Brown is OK with it. He will call me a d—head the next time he sees me and I will probably call him one as well, so we move on pretty quickly.”
With two rounds to go before the finals series, Richmond sit only half a game (two premiership points) outside of a spot in the top eight.
Having now snapped a two-game losing streak, Hardwick says he likes the direction of where his team is at.
“There have been bits and pieces that have improved. There has been some inconsistency of performance we would, obviously, like to iron out, but we look at the way we have been playing, there has been more Richmond-like performances, if that makes sense,” Hardwick said.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
