{"id":95725,"date":"2021-07-06T03:27:04","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T03:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95725"},"modified":"2021-07-06T04:57:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T04:57:32","slug":"hardwicks-personal-issues-affecting-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95725","title":{"rendered":"Hardwick's 'personal issues' affecting Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran AFL reporter Caroline Wilson has questioned whether Richmond's poor form of late is in part due to coach Damien Hardwick<\/a>'s off-field issues from earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

Richmond, who since 2017 have claimed three AFL premierships, slipped outside of the top eight last week following a shock 10-point loss to the struggling Gold Coast Suns<\/a> at Marvel Stadium.<\/p>\n

Wilson at the start of this year wrote in The Age<\/a> that Hardwick's off-field issues, namely his new relationship with a Tigers staffer that followed his highly publicised marriage break-up, tarnished his leadership at the club in the eyes of many personnel at Tigerland.<\/p>\n

With Richmond now in jeopardy of missing out on a spot in the finals following three straight losses, Wilson pondered whether Hardwick's off-field issues had taken a toll on the on-field side of things.<\/p>\n

"I wrote in January that he had tarnished his leadership at Richmond because of issues that had happened off the field and I know Damien and many at Richmond didn't like this article, but I stand by it," Wilson told Nine's Footy Classified.<\/p>\n

\"Damien<\/p>\n

"I certainly felt at the time that he had hurt the club and he had let the club down by the way he'd handled his off-field issues and the break up of his marriage.<\/p>\n

"I don't know whether the off-field is affecting the on-field at the Richmond Football Club \u2013 only the players and coach can know that. But what I do know is that great football clubs are strong and united and hold together at every point.<\/p>\n

"And I know that there are people at Richmond who have not enjoyed some of the things that have happened off-field as a result of Damien's personal issues. I know it's a tricky subject, but that's the fact.<\/p>\n

"This is a team that have been unbelievable for four years and was threatening for finals for most of the years before that."<\/p>\n

\"Houli<\/p>\n

"I'm not surprised that players might have lost a bit of hunger and they're getting older and injuries have cruelled them and maybe it's just too hard to stay at the top for a fifth year in a row."<\/p>\n

"As they rebuild now and leadership becomes a big issue at Richmond on and off the field, I just wonder if there's any impact."<\/p>\n

Wilson also revealed that her claims have led to Hardwick now refusing to appear on 3AW.<\/p>\n

"I only become aware in recent weeks that he actually won't come on 3AW at all, he's banned the whole station. Which seems extraordinary to me, I'm only on one pre-game segment every weekend," she added.<\/p>\n

"I'm a football journalist \u2013 I've had my blues with Richmond in the past \u2013 I've had worse blues probably. It's really interesting that he's banned all of 3AW, I think that's pretty strange."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran AFL reporter Caroline Wilson has questioned whether Richmond's poor form of late is in part due to coach Damien Hardwick's off-field issues from earlier […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/95725"}],"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=95725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95727,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95725\/revisions\/95727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}