It feels like one of the most significant coaching appointments in the modern era of AFL.
Thrilling for a club that hasn’t achieved anything through 13 seasons of existence and fascinating for the broader football landscape.
A multiple-premiership coach who abruptly left when the moment was right and immediately took the plumb job on offer brushing away the appearance of haste and the suspicion that this was all neatly arranged.
Damien Hardwick arrived on the Gold Coast rippling with energy and bold with predictions.
It was a necessary projection to beat the depiction of burnout that had been crafted around his departure from Richmond.
He made no effort to lean on patience and curb expectation. Rather he projected confidence and ambition.
There aren’t too many coaches I can recall who used the foundation press conference to declare premiership success near and achievable.
This club has waited literally forever… why wait longer?
Hardwick’s presence commands the entire back page of the Courier Mail today and he has featured on Sunrise nationally this morning. It’s a coup of the Suns.
They should have handled the previous coach’s departure better, but there is no question they are better placed under new management.
Longevity has become such a definitive marker of success in the AFL ranks where the average length of tenure is longer than in any other professional league around the world.
But hanging on grimly and loyally deprives the sheer excitement and possibility contained in Hardwick’s bold play.
This has the feel of Leigh Matthews arrival at the Brisbane Lions and Mick Malthouse’s move from West Coast to Collingwood.
It’s relevant as Chris Scott looks to extend his time at Geelong, Adam Simpson limps toward an end at West Coast and Luke Beveridge is the centre of such conjecture at the Western Bulldogs.
Hardwick is a premiership player at two clubs and a premiership coach at a third. What a legacy it would be create lightning in a bottle at a fourth.
Opportunity knocked for Hardwick and he was happy to answer the call.