Egos left at the door
‘Won’t get SuperCoach points’: Hardwick sticks to plan
New Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick is confident his “very coachable” playing group will be more and more willing to put personal stats hauls to one side and continue to develop the system he says will “win lots of footy games”.
Hardwick revealed he sent a post-match text message to young forward Tom Berry for “one of the best” six possession games he had seen in last weekend’s 39-point win over his old team Richmond to ram home the message that winning wasn’t about stats.
“I sent Tommy Berry a text,” Hardwick said.
“For a six-possession game, it was one of the best I’d seen. We’re not going to be a highstats team.
“We’ll develop a system of play and style that will take us a long way, where we need to go. Players are required to fill those roles and if they do, we’ll win lots of footy games.
“They’re not going to get a lot of SuperCoach points but hopefully we walk away at the end of season winning more games than we lost.”
Berry only had six disposals but also laid three forward line tackles as part of a trio of pressure-players, including Malcolm Rosas Jr and Nick Holman, who Hardwick labelled his “three amigos” and an important part of the team’s system.
“The three amigos; those guys are crucial to the way we wanted to play ... the speed factor up front is really, really important,” the coach said.
“They don’t have to sit there and kick a great deal of goals.
“If they put on high pressure, win and nullify contests and make us hard to play against, that’s a great result.
“They have to understand how important they are to our system.”
Hardwick’s stamp on the team was clear in their haul of 11 straight goals to set up the victory against the team he coached to three premierships.
That’s the level he wants the Suns to reach and with a round 1 clash against Adelaide the next test, Hardwick said improvement would be continual but sticking to the system would be crucial.
“This group is very coachable; they try to do everything right,” Hardwick said.
“We have to move from the conscious to the subconscious.
“I don’t want them thinking – this is a silly thing to say – but we don’t want them thinking too much on the field, I want them playing off instinct.
“That’s why we’re not going to be perfect and will get better as the year progresses.”