Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has come in for criticism after lashing out at a journalist at a press conference on Thursday.
Hardwick took issue at a question that asked him what he had to say to those suggesting he had lost the playing group after their 1-1-5 start to the 2023 season, telling those critics to say it to his face.
“It’s their narratives,” Hardwick said at a press conference.
“Like that's the reality.
“It's easy to sit there and say those comments when they're sitting behind a desk.
“Come and say it to my face.”
With Hardwick’s sharp comment creating headlines, SEN Breakfast’s Kane Cornes and David King discussed whether the coach was in the right to respond in such a way.
“I'm not sure what he gains by saying that,” Cornes said.
“It's a mistake for him to do that, because even if you did say it to his face, I mean, what, what's he going to do? He's not going to punch you.
“There's nothing an AFL coach is going to do if you say it to his face. So that was a mistake from him.
“But it was also a mistake from the journalist to ask and probably a mistake from the Richmond media department not to brief him accurately, because no-one actually said that he's lost the players.”
Given no prominent voice actually said Hardwick had lost the players, King believes the coach was put in an unfair spot.
“In fairness to him though he was asked a question alluding to the fact that someone had said that,” King said.
“It’s not up to him to be across everything.”
“Could he have said, well, it's up to his media department to brief him on the key issues,” Cornes said.
“We, how could you brief him on, on something that hadn't happened?” King asked.
“Well, then he could have said, ‘Who said that?’,” Cornes said.
“That was always up for, for grabs that reply,” King said.
“But you can't brief him on that.”
“Yeah, but I think if someone had said that he'd lost the players, the media department would have briefed him,” Cornes said.
The journalist’s comments actually harped back to Caroline Wilson’s take on Footy Classified that Hardwick’s time at Richmond may be coming to an end, where she urged that he was yet to lose the playing group.
“Something's not right,” Wilson said.
“Well, I'm not saying he's lost the players, but 14 years is a long time to coach one team.
“I still see Alastair Clarkson as a cautionary tale.
“I know I keep saying it, and I think there are much better people surrounding Damien Hardwick than there were with Alastair as that dynasty dropped off.
“I'm not saying I would necessarily (move him on) this year, but I think we're coming to the end.”
In response to Wilson, Cornes believes her opinion was fair as Hardwick’s response is a sign of the amount of pressure he’s under despite being a three-time premiership coach at the club.
“I think that's fair commentary,” Cornes said.
“Like I think that's balanced commentary, she said, ‘I'm not saying he lost the players yet’.
“A journalist took that the wrong way and all of the sudden, Damien Hardwick has responded that way and it's the back page of the paper.
“I mean, that's how stories can snowball, isn't it?
“It is a sign of how much pressure he's under regardless of the success that he's had.”
Hardwick will hope to pick up his second win of the season when Richmond hosts West Coast at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.