Damien Hardwick has signed a new contract with the Richmond Football Club.
The club, led by President Peggy O'Neal and CEO Brendon Gale, announced today that Hardwick has put pen to a three-year extension which will keep him at Punt Road until 2021.
The deal will make the man affectionately known as ‘Dimma’ the longest-serving Richmond coach, taking his stay at Tigerland to 12 years.
Last year, Hardwick guided Richmond to its first premiership in 37 years.
Hardwick, who was appointed as Tigers coach in 2009, told the club’s official website: “I’m incredibly honoured to continue coaching the Richmond Football Club, and have the support of Peggy, Brendon and the Board.
“It’s a collective effort that helps deliver success, and I’m fortunate at Richmond to have a great group of players, coaches and staff all working together towards our goal.
“It’s been an exciting journey thus far at Richmond, and both myself, the coaches and players are eager for the challenge that awaits this season.”
Hardwick, 45, had been contracted with the Yellow and Black until the end of 2018 but will now stay on with the club with whom he won the 2017 AFLCA’s Coach of the Year award.
Big news out of Tigerland today...
— Richmond FC 🐯 (@Richmond_FC) March 6, 2018
✍️📰 - https://t.co/Uu70wXyJwr pic.twitter.com/o9n1dTJ5lb
Hardwick’s re-signing signals a massive turnaround since the end of 2016, when his position as coach was called into question after a disappointing campaign that season, with the coach openly admitting he felt the mounting pressure to leave the club.
However club CEO Brendon Gale says Richmond were never close to sacking Hardwick.
“He wasn’t close to being sacked,” he told SEN’s KB and The Doc.
“We had a disappointing 2016. The experience was well short of expectations and for a club like ours, that brings a lot of external pressure.
“Internally we went through a lot of evidence gathering. There were aspects of our footy program that we felt we could address and improve and we set about doing that and there were some aspects of Damien’s make-up that he needed to change as well, and he was prepared to set about doing that.
“Like a lot of things in life, I think when we’re open minded in life we do most of our learning and our richest learning when times are pretty tough, and we feel like we can come out better and stronger.”
Listen to Brendon Gale chatting with Kevin Bartlett and Dr Turf below: