{"id":340896,"date":"2023-10-22T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340896"},"modified":"2023-10-22T05:01:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T05:01:43","slug":"the-fiery-rant-that-signalled-end-of-hardwicks-tigers-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340896","title":{"rendered":"The fiery rant that signalled end of Hardwick's Tigers tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richmond Tigers<\/a> great Trent Cotchin<\/a> has given an extraordinary insight into Damien Hardwick<\/a>'s final act as coach of the club, revealing he referred to the side as "putrid" after a shock loss to Essendon.<\/p>\n

According to Cotchin, a furious Hardwick called the Bombers<\/a> players "a bunch of spuds" in a fiery spray which was the premiership winner's final game in charge of Richmond after a stellar 14-year stint at the club.<\/p>\n

Richmond lost its round 10 clash to Essendon after the siren, coughing up an 18-point final quarter lead, and Hardwick's resignation came a few days later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In Cotchin's new book 'From the Heart\ufeff<\/em>', the triple premiership captain opened up on the fiery spray that signalled the end of Hardwick's tenure at Richmond.<\/p>\n

\"Damien<\/p>\n

"He was filthy and cutting with his comments to the group and about the opposition. In an angry meeting in the rooms after the game, he referred to us as 'putrid' and said the way some of us had played meant he would just get 'another c–t to replace us'," Cotchin wrote.<\/p>\n

"He pointed to the Essendon team that was displayed on the whiteboard and said, 'To be honest with you, I reckon this team is a bunch of spuds, and you aren't even as good as they are'.<\/p>\n

"His spray had much more to do with us than his assessment of the Bombers. Upon reflection I'm not even sure he knew what he had said.<\/p>\n

"He was quite rattled. I was thinking, 'Well, this is different'."<\/p>\n

Cotchin, who retired at the end of the 2023 season, also lifted the lid on the conversation he and his coach had when Hardwick revealed he was stepping down.<\/p>\n

\"Trent<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe 33-year-old admitted there was a change in Hardwick's demeanour as he prepared to make the decision to leave Richmond official in May.<\/p>\n

"He sent me a text message early on Monday morning but I didn't notice it at first … The text message said: 'Hey mate, do you have time to catch up today?'," Cotchin wrote.<\/p>\n

"I eventually got back to him, saying: 'Do you mean on the phone or in person?' He told me he would prefer to do it in person. I sensed straight away that it was about him. Not me!<\/p>\n

"I got to his place at 12.54pm; I left at 1.08pm. In between, we sat on the couch and talked about why he felt it was the right time for him to go.<\/p>\n

"The one thing I will always remember was how much pressure seemed to have been released by him making that decision to leave. I can vividly remember how blue his eyes looked. He looked like he had more life back in his face."<\/p>\n

Hardwick didn't have to wait long to secure another coaching job in the AFL, signing a five-year deal to coach the Gold Coast Suns<\/a> from 2024 onwards just months after leaving Richmond.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richmond Tigers great Trent Cotchin has given an extraordinary insight into Damien Hardwick's final act as coach of the club, revealing he referred to the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340901,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340896\/revisions\/340901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/340898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}