Gold Coast could be set to offer three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick a five-year contract, reports The Age’s Sam McClure.
McClure’s report says Suns chief executive Mark Evans is planning to fly to Europe to talk to Hardwick, who is currently vacationing overseas after leaving his post at Richmond in May.
The report also suggested the Suns reached out to Hardwick via phone last week, while the club is now devising a plan to offer the 50-year-old a deal.
If Hardwick accepts the offer at Gold Coast, he’ll be contracted at the Suns from 2024 to the end of the 2028 season.
In response to the developing story, Hardwick’s Port Adelaide premiership teammate was sceptical of the move.
While Cornes understands how good of a coach Hardwick is, he questioned whether he was the right coach for the Suns after he cited burnout as a reason to leave Richmond after nine rounds this season
“I'm just not going to quite get my head around this just yet,” Cornes said on SEN Sportsday.
“So, Hardwick leaves nine games into the season. He’s burnt out.
“He gets a payout from a club, presumably for the rest of the year.
“He goes away, he comes back, he attends some footy and does some stuff and he goes away again.
“Stuart Dew, his good mate, his premiership teammate gets the sack whilst he is away.
“I'm just sceptical that someone who is burnt out after Round 9, is ready to go again a couple of weeks later, according to him on the Dyl & Friends Podcast and now he’s ready to take over.
“Is he the right man for Gold Coast? I know what his resume says. I know what a great coach and football person he has been.
“But coaching is a job where you need energy. You need to be all in. You don't want to come back in January. You don't want to be having time off. You don't want to be burnt out.
“This club needs to play finals, it needs to play finals next year.”
Cornes also added that if he were a Richmond fan, he’d be annoyed at Hardwick if he signed on at another club for 2024 after listing his reasons to depart the Tigers.
“As I've said, a couple of times this year, if I was a Richmond fan, I'd be absolutely filthy,” Cornes said.
“He's traded all their (Richmond’s) draft picks.
“He's bolstered the midfield, he was contracted until the end of 2024.
"He lasted nine games in 2023, citing burnout and now he's going to coach a rival a couple of weeks later.
“It's a bizarre story to me and I love Damien Harwick and I love what he's done.
“But I'm sceptical of the whole thing.”
Hardwick coached Richmond for 307 games from 2010 to 2023, winning premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020.