Tigers players to be educated after groping incident: Hardwick

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says he addressed groping among players days before a tense Friday press conference and will use the matter as an educational piece for his team.

The two-time premiership coach said he had not considered dropping defenders Nick

Vlastuin and Jayden Short for Saturday’s clash with Port Adelaide, but also did not believe the story had been “overblown”.

“We understand it’s not a great look for the game,” Hardwick said.

“We’re disappointed and the fact of the matter is that we spoke about it about two days earlier, so we thought that we’d really very much nipped it in the bud. “It’s all about education from our point of view and it’s in the eye of the beholder.

“So we’ll continue to educate our players and continue to learn from it.”

Hardwick said it was a serious matter and he had made it clear to players that any future similar behaviour would not be tolerated.

“We don’t think it’s overblown,” Hardwick said on Fox Footy.

“The reality is it’s a situation that doesn’t look great.

“We understand that, we’re here to set an example and we dealt with it a couple of days ago.

“So our players are of the full understanding that it shouldn’t happen and it won’t happen again. “It’s something that is prevalent in society so we’ve just got to make sure we nip it in the bud and continue to set the really good example that we know we can.”

Ruckman Mabior Chol, who was the subject of some of the alleged groping, said in a statement on Friday that he had “no issue whatsoever” with Vlastuin or Short. Chol’s manager Ralph Carr told News Corp yesterday that he and his client were considering the matter closed.

“There was nothing in it,” Carr said.

“I speak to most of my players nearly every day or every second day and he’s no different. He was no different (on Friday) to any other day.”