Richmond coach Damien Hardwick will take an extended break over the off-season following a “tough” 2020 campaign.
Hardwick guided the Tigers to a third flag in four years following Saturday night’s 31-point win over Geelong in an historic Grand Final at the Gabba.
Speaking on 3AW, the triple-premiership coach plans to step away from football until February and allow his assistants to take the reins in his absence.
“I’m going to take a bit of a longer break this year over summer,” Hardwick said.
“It’s been a pretty full on 3-4 years and we’ve done a hell of a lot of work and had a lot of success along the way but sometimes you need to step back.
“I’m very lucky that I’ve got some terrific assistants, and a couple of those guys will move on, but the coaching group and the people I have around me do a large amount of work and the reality is I sit at the top and manage those guys.
“But I’m very confident those guys can step up and fill those roles because it’s been a tough year – professionally and personally – so I’ll step back for a little while and won’t come back until maybe February … just to give myself a little bit of a break and a bit of breathing room, because I need it at the moment.”
Hardwick’s Tigers made it back-to-back flags to cement their status as one of the greatest sides of the modern era.